rights in council work. The debate proceeded in two parts: (1) the appropriateness of the participation of Max van der Stoel, the special rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights for Iraq, in a formal meeting of the Security Council, and (2) the human rights situation inside Iraq and what, if any, relevance it had to Security Council operations. Security Council members uniformly condemned Iraqi regime’s repression of its population but were divided over the continuing intrusion of human rights concerns into their meetings. Council members divided into three groups: norm promoters who actively sought to incorporate human rights concerns; norm detractors who denied the relevance and appropriateness of human rights concerns to the Security Council; and norm instrumentalists who supported the inclusion of human rights on a conditional, instrumental basis—only when such information would help the council execute its Charter mandate.
On 11 August, Belgium, France, the UK, and the U.S. invited Van der Stoel to brief the UNSC on recent human rights developments in Iraq, citing rule 39 of the Provisional Rules of Procedure, which reads, “The Security Council may invite members of the Secretariat or other persons, whom it considers competent for the purpose, to supply it with information or to give other assistance in examining matters within its competence.”68 Anticipating the potential push back from norm detractors, they emphasized that the Security Council would receive Van der Stoel in his personal capacity and not as the special rapporteur for Iraq appointed by the Commission on Human Rights. States that took an instrumental approach to the norms debate, like Ecuador and Zimbabwe, argued that normally it would be inappropriate for the Security Council to examine or take a stand on the human rights report written by Van der Stoel because it would undermine the division of responsibility within the UN system. However, because the Security Council had already passed Resolution 688, information that would help it execute its mandate was within the purview of the council. Norm instrumentalists consented to the request by the norm promoters for Van der Stoel’s participation based on the understanding that he would be speaking in his personal capacity.69 Detractors like China and India noted their strong reservations, arguing that matters pertaining to human rights should appropriately be discussed in the Commission on Human Rights.70 India argued, “It is the consistent position of the Indian delegation that the various organs and bodies of the United Nations should restrict their deliberations and actions within their respective spheres of competence as defined in the Charter…. The Council can focus its legitimate attention on the threat or likely threat to peace and stability in the region but it cannot discuss human rights situations per se or make recommendations on matters outside its competence.”71 In the end, Van der Stoel was permitted to testify in his personal capacity, in large part because permanent members are not permitted to veto procedural matters.
Van der Stoel’s testimony reaffirmed the intentional story about Iraq’s internal behavior whereby the government was engaged in a systematic attempt to repress and kill large portions of the southern Shi’a and northern Kurdish populations.72 Van der Stoel argued that the Iraqi regime’s economic blockade of the north was threatening a new humanitarian catastrophe as hunger became widespread. He also testified that humanitarian relief to the southern marshes was restricted by the Iraqi government in violation of the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Iraq is a party, and paragraph 3 of Resolution 688, which demanded immediate access to all Iraqis in need of humanitarian assistance.73 The Iraqi regime was engaged in a major military offensive against civilians in the southern marshes using artillery bombardment and fixed-wing aircraft. Van der Stoel reminded the council that international passivity in the late 1980s had allowed Iraq to exterminate part of the Iraqi Kurd population and urged the council to avoid repeating that tragedy.74 In short, his testimony encouraged the UNSC to expand its engagement with the Iraqi civilian population deep inside the borders of Iraq and not just in the border areas where neighbor states might be threatened.
As in the meeting preceding the passage of Resolution 688 the year before, the debate following Van der Stoel’s briefing in August 1992 was not about the cause or character of the violence in Iraq or its resultant human rights violations. Rather, it was about whether the Security Council had a responsibility or a right to respond to them, and whether human rights violations were linked to the maintenance of international peace and security. Detractors of the linkage between human rights and international security were noticeably quiet in the subsequent debate and declined to speak on the public record in response to Van der Stoel’s briefing. Only nine Security Council members—all of whom articulated a direct link between the protection of human rights and the maintenance of international peace and security—made formal statements in response to the briefing. States like Hungary, Japan, and Austria argued that gross and systematic human rights violations alone warranted Security Council attention. Hungary underscored this point: “[There is a] link that exists between the way a Government treats its own citizens and the way that it acts in the international arena as well as [a] link between enforcing respect for human rights and maintaining international peace and security.”75 Similarly, Austria argued,
The protection of human rights and, in particular, of the rights of ethnic minorities too, has had an important impact on the development of peaceful relations between states. There is a direct connection between democratic processes within countries and the evolution of a political culture which is conducive to the peaceful settlement of disputes. From our own history, we know that peace was most threatened when human rights were abolished and minorities persecuted and when democratic processes gave way to totalitarian practices. Human rights, minority rights and democracy, are, therefore, important cornerstones of our common endeavour.76
The political implication for the Security Council was that respect for human rights was more than a legal or humanitarian question; rather, respect for human rights was also “an integral part of international collective security.” Thus, the Security Council should take an “unambiguous and clear cut stand for the protection of those rights whenever and wherever they are flagrantly violated.”77 In short, protecting human rights and international humanitarian law was central to the primary functions of the UNSC.
The majority of Security Council members took the more instrumental approach by emphasizing that human rights were a concern of the Security Council only in such instances when human rights violations directly threatened international peace and security. According to this view, human rights violations were duly addressed by other UN organs unless their consequences had a direct bearing on international or regional peace and security. For example, France reasoned that the Security Council had an obligation to prevent massive human rights violations in the southern marshes as a means of preventing a mass exodus of refugees, which would further threaten security in the region.78 Belgium, Russia, the UK, and the U.S. each argued that the Iraqi government’s flagrant defiance of Security Council directives and especially those of Resolution 688 made the human rights behavior of Iraq relevant to council consideration. Russia emphasized the necessity of states to follow Security Council directives:
The Russian Federation attaches great importance to the full and consistent implementation of the resolutions of the Security Council which are intended to eliminate the consequences of the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait and to establish a lasting peace and security in that region. Accordingly, we, like other Council members, are very seriously alarmed by reports of a continuing policy of repression against the civilian population in various parts of Iraq, which constitutes a direct violation of the demand, contained in resolution 688 (1991), that Iraq, as a contribution to the removing of the threat to international peace and security in the region, should end the repression against its own civilian population.79
Iraqi defiance of Security Council resolutions, and in particular the directive to stop repressing its population as detailed in Resolution 688, made its human rights practices an appropriate subject of Security Council discussion. In passing Resolution 688 the Security Council had determined that the consequences of Iraqi repression threatened international security. Because Resolution 688 demanded that Iraq cease the repression of its civilian population, evidence of the Iraqi regime’s compliance, or lack thereof, was integral to Security Council deliberation.
