PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT

OF DISPUTES
INT 626 - International Organisation
PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF
DISPUTES

Importance of Peaceful Settlement

Charter Procedures and Methods
United Nations Experiences
Changing Roles of United Nations Organs
General Appraisal and Future Requirement
Importance of Peaceful Settlement
 Primaryfunction of United Nations is to maintain
world peace.
 The goals of promoting peace and security are
mentioned first in the Charter, and peaceful
settlement of disputes is also first and
fundamental among the means for goal
attainment.
 Developing friendly relations among nations
 Harmonising the actions of nations
 Takingappropriate measures to strengthen
universal peace
 Practisingtolerance and living together in peace,
reinforce the desire for avoiding war.
Importance of Peaceful Settlement
It is salient as an alternative to the risks
of conflict and nuclear war if survival is a
foremost human value.

Peaceful settlement require a spirit of

cooperation and compromise among
national states, but any other course
holds little promise for survival in an
interdependent world of states with
nuclear capability.
Charter Procedures and Methods
The charter provides a logical progression
of steps to be followed by states involved
in disputes.

Each member promises in adhering to the

charter to settle all disputes by peaceful
means and to refrain from the threat or
use of force.
Charter Procedures and Methods
If a dispute does arise, the parties should:
Seek a solution by negotiation,
Inquiry,
Mediation,
Conciliation,
Arbitration,
Judicial settlement,
Resort to regional agencies or
arrangements,
Other peaceful means of their own choice.
Charter Procedures and Methods
If the dispute is not so resolved, then a party to the
dispute or any member of the United Nations or the
Secretary General may bring the matter to the
attention of the Security Council or of the General
Assembly. The assumption was originally made that
the Security Council would, in most case, be the
referee since the primary responsibility for the
maintenance of international peace and security
was lodged in the council. When a dispute does
come before the Security Council, that body’s first
and simplest option is to suggest to the disputants
that they settle their dispute by one of the means
of peaceful settlement listed above.
Charter Procedures and Methods
 Negotiation: the essence of the practise of diplomacy.
 Good offices: the only traditional method of dispute
settlement not listed in Article 33 of the charter but one
frequently used by United Nations organs.
 Inquiry: a process of fact-finding by the neutral team of
investigators.
 Mediation: a procedure involving the suggestion of terms of
settlement by a third party.
 Conciliation: similar to mediation except for the legal
distinction that the third party is a commission or
international body whose aid has been sought in finding a
solution satisfactory to the disputants.
 Arbitration: a means of applying legal principles to a
controversy within limits previously agreed upon by the
disputing parties.
 Adjudication or judicial settlement: a process of submitting a
dispute to an international court for decision.
Charter Procedures and Methods
 When a dispute is called to the attention of the
Security Council, the first step is to adopt the
question as an agenda item. Prolonged disputes
previously adopted as agenda items and never
officially removed from the list of items of which
the Council is “seized” may be taken up again at
any future time without this preliminary step.
 After the Security Council agrees to consider a
dispute or situation, any party has a right to
participate, without vote, in the discussion of that
dispute.
 Given issue may fail for lack of nine supporting
votes or because of an occasional veto by a
permanent member.
Charter Procedures and Methods
Any nine members may remove the item
from the agenda and request an
emergency session of the General
Assembly under the Uniting for Peace
Resolution if Security Council action is
blocked by a veto.
One device not mentioned in the Charter
is calling on parties already engaged in
armed hostilities to abide by a cease-fire.
Charter Procedures and Methods
Until a dispute is finally resolved, the Security
Council may retain the item on the agenda for a
period of months or years. This allows for
reconsideration on short notice
To follow up the results of previous Council
recommendation
To seek new, more effective means for settlement
To consider new developments in situation.
Charter Procedures and Methods
 Ifthe parties to a dispute can agree that a
satisfactory result may be obtained by judicial
settlement, they may submit their case, by mutual
agreement, to the International Court of Justice.
 The Secretary-General and his staff play a wide
variety of roles in dealing with disputes. These
range from merely receiving and transmitting
information between governments and United
Nations organs to calling the attention of those
organs to threatening situations or to acting as the
principal agent of the Security Council or the
General Assembly in mediating a dispute or
carrying out the steps called for in United Nations
resolutions.
United Nations Experience
More than 180 disputes were debated by
the Security Council and General
Assembly during the period of forty-three
years.

Through the selection of a few case

studies, a wide range of conditions may
be illustrated concerning the ability of
United Nations organs to contribute to the
peaceful settlement of disputes.
The Iranian Question
 InJanuary 1946, Iran complains that Soviet
troops still occupying the Azerbaijan region were
interfering with the internal affairs of Iran by
encouraging a separatist movement there.
 TheCouncil is unable to use strong measures or
coercion against a major power.
 Casesettlement through negotiations was
hastened by United Nations exposure and
pressure.
Former Italian Colonies
 The disposition of Libya, Italian Somaliland, and
Eritrea by Italy.
 Libya was to become an independent state not
later than 1st January 1952.
 Somaliland was to be placed under trusteeship
for a period of ten years and was then to become
independent.
 In December 1950, the General Assembly
approved a plan according to which Eritrea would
be federated with Ethiopia as an autonomous
unit under the Ethiopian Crown.
 In general, the Assembly performed a difficult
and complicated assignment quite effectively.
Indian-Pakistani Question
 Known as Kashmir dispute, one of the most prolonged
and still unsettled (1947 – Present).
 The Security Council established the United Nations
Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) to which
it assigned responsibilities of investigation, good
offices, and mediation.
 Cease-fire line was established and United Nations
Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan
(UNMOGIP) was set up to observe and report on the
cease-fire.
 United Nations efforts to resolve the Kashmir issue
represent an exercise in repeated frustration, since
the parties are unwilling to reach a compromise
solution.
Race Conflict in South Africa
 One of the bitterest, most persistent, and least
soluble problems confronting the United Nations
 The policies of apartheid require complete separation
of nonwhites from whites.
 A series of General Assembly resolutions requesting
South African negotiations with India and with
Pakistan were ignored by South Africa.
 The principal trading partners of South Africa-the
United Kingdom, the United States, France, and West
Germany-are unwilling to support universal economic
sanctions, and their cooperation is essential for
effective Security Council action.
 Gradual changes of policies could eventually result
from internal pressures.
Situation in the Dominican Republic
 From 1961 to 1966 the political situation in the
Dominican Republic was very unstable.
 The Organisation of American States (OAS) became
involved in the Dominican situation earlier than the
United Nations, engaged in a wide range of activities,
and provided the main channels by which a political
settlement was finally achieved.
 The Dominican situation demonstrates the impotency
of the United Nations in coercing a major power.
 It may be asserted that the United Nations, the OAS,
and the United States all lost prestige as a result of
the episode.
Situation Concerning Western Sahara
 In 1975 Spain relinquished its claim to Spanish
Sahara in the northwest Africa and in early 1976 the
territory. Morocco received about two-thirds of the
area and Mauritania received the rest.

 At the same time the Polisario Front proclaimed the

independence of the territory under principles of self-
determination but the status of the territory has been
reviewed by the General Assembly each year since
1964.
Situation Concerning Western Sahara
 In the United Nations for nearly 14 years, the General
Assembly was the major forum for the dispute. In
turn, the Assembly urged the Organisation of African
Unity (OAU) acts as the principal intermediary in
seeking a solution.

 The Secretary-General engaged in extensive

negotiations leading to the acceptance of a peace
plan.

 The flexibility of entire process and cooperation

between the UN and the OAU are the factors
accounting for the gradual amelioration of a long and
bitter dispute.
Changing Roles of United Nations Organs
 There is a little question that the General Assembly
has play a larger role in the processes of peaceful
settlement of disputes than would have been
predicted in 1945.

 Almost 21 percent of all disputes submitted to the

United Nations have been dealt with solely by the
General Assembly. Another 24 percent have been
considered by both the Security Council and the
General Assembly.

 Predictionsin the 1950s that the General Assembly

might become the predominant agency for dispute
settlement have been proved wrong.
Changing Roles of United Nations Organs
 TheGeneral Assembly stands ready to deal both with
emergencies and the less urgent aspects of disputes
when the Security Council is deadlocked.

 The Secretary-General expanded role in dispute

settlement in direct negotiation, appointment of
representatives or mediators, and furnishing of full,
prompt, and accurate information to the Council and
the Assembly.

 The Secretary General pointed out that the parties to

the disputes sought his assistance for peaceful
settlement prior to the necessity for submitting the
dispute to the Security Council.
General Appraisal and Future
Requirement
 Manycontroversies develop that are not submitted to
the United Nations but are handled through other
means.

 Nationalism and sovereignty stand as bulwalks

against the use of international channel for conflict
resolution. However, small states have been willing to
request United Nations aid in conflict resolution.

 Regional
organisations have played a relatively
modest role in dispute settlement.

 The
attitudes and the policies of the members are the
most critical factors.
General Appraisal and Future
Requirement
 The provision of efficient channels of dispute
settlement lies at the heart of any adequate
system of organising a society.

 Intomorrow’s world the necessity for humankind

to provide satisfactory means for conflict
resolution on a global scale is greater than was
the imperative for similar national institutions at
the time of gestation and birth of each state.
 THANK YOU!
PEACEFUL SETTLEMENT OF DISPUTES
INT 626 - International Organisation