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| A NOTE ON AUTHORIZATION OF ENFORCEMENT ACTION BY OTHERS |
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Under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, the UN Security Council may take measures to deal with threats to peace, breaches of the peace and acts of aggression. On several occasions, the Security Council has authorized Member States to use all necessary means-including force-to achieve a stated objective. Consent of the parties is not necessarily required.
With such Security Council authorization, Member States have formed coalitions to take joint military action as in the Korean conflict in 1950, and more recently, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, in Somalia and Rwanda, to restore the legitimate government of Haiti, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in Albania and in East Timor. It also authorized deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force in the Central African Republic, which in March 1998 was replaced by a UN peacekeeping operation, the UN Mission in the Central African Republic (MINURCA). These actions, although endorsed by the Security Council, were entirely under the control of participating States and not under United Nations command. They are, therefore, distinctly different from United Nations peacekeeping operations. |
| Prepared by the United Nations Department of Public Information | Next topic: The peacekeeper as deminer | Back to Index |