In his letter to the Security Council, Antonio Guterres spoke of his concerns about existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security, with the hostilities in Gaza and Israel creating “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma”.
Days after Israel resumed its war on Gaza, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter and urged the Security Council to “act over Israel-Palestine crisis” on Wednesday.
In his letter to the President of the Security Council, Guterres wrote, “Nowhere is safe in Gaza”, and called on the members of the Security Council to “avert a humanitarian catastrophe”.
What is Article 99 of the UN Charter?
Under Article 99, “The Secretary-General may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
It is the first time the article has been formally invoked by Guterres. The last time the article was used was in 1989 by Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar near the conclusion of the Lebanese civil war. The war, claiming approximately 150,000 lives, entailed an Israeli invasion and occupation of southern Lebanon, alongside confrontations between Israeli and Syrian forces.
The Secretary-General, however, does not have the power to force the Security Council into specific actions. It’s essentially a provision for the Secretary-General to raise awareness of potential threats.
Why did Guterres invoke Article 99?
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said the UN chief was taking the step “given the scale of the loss of human life in Gaza and Israel, in such a short amount of time”.
Dujarric believes it is the most powerful tool that the Secretary-General has.
In his letter to the Security Council, Antonio Guterres spoke of his concerns about existing threats to the maintenance of international peace and security, with the hostilities in Gaza and Israel creating “appalling human suffering, physical destruction and collective trauma”.
“The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region,” the letter read.
Doubtful much will come of this, unless the US gets on board with the idea of ceasefire and backs it up by forcing Israel’s hand, somehow?
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