ABSTRACT
It cannot be over emphasized that the main purpose of the United Nations with regards to the Preamble to its Charter of 1945 and Article 1(1) is the maintenance of international peace and security. To that end, several provisions were made in the Charter specifically prescribing the requisite procedures(s) to be adopted in that regard as well as specific organ(s) and or machineries relevant for the realization thereof. This work seeks to appraise the role and effectiveness of the UN in the maintenance of international peace and security with a view to ascertaining it’s role and whether it has succeeded or not in the discharge of that onerous responsibility amidst several challenges and or obstacles which the Organization has had to contend with in the course of that endeavor over the years.
The work will contend that the maintenance of international peace and security by the UN has been negatively impacted by the hitherto existing East – West ideological differences and the reality of the system of veto power under the UN Charter as well as the inherent problem of State’s interest amongst others, and these have in some cases resulted to the incapacity of the UN in that regard – even under the present international milieu. We will in the course of this study also examine such philosophical notions as collective security and peace settlement on which the idea of international peace and security had been anchored as well as its corollaries, such as disarmament and balance of power, with a view to ascertaining the feasibility or otherwise of holistic collective security within the international system.
We will also take a legal view of the war ongoing in Gaza between Israel and Palestine. With particular reference to the issue of Genocide which South Africa has brought against the State of Isreal and the international Court of Justice Judgement in the case thereon.
We will then conclude by positing that notwithstanding the relative successes or achievement of the UN when compared to its predecessor, the League of Nations, the absence of practical democratic norms or principles in the decision making process of UN Security Council owing to the reality of the system of veto power as well as the absence of a standing army with the requisite logistics under the Charter, coupled with the problems of State’s interests arising from the very nature of the international political system under which the United Nations is founded and operates amongst others, have rendered the present legal framework under the UN Charter largely inadequate for the attainment of that objective given the realities of the present international system; and therefore, makes it imperative for a re-adjustment of the entire system so as to keep pace with the realities of the present international milieu, some of which necessary steps or adjustments we have suggested in our recommendations in this work.
