UN Security Council Resolutions Concerning Children Affected by Armed Conflict: In Whose ‘Best Interest’?
In: The International Journal of Children's RightsSearch for other papers by Sarah M. Field in
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The agreement by the Security Council to adopt thematic resolutions on children is a powerful expression of our collective commitment to children and their rights: specifically to ensuring children’s right to protection from serious violations of international law. Still history is replete with examples of protectionism by powerful decision-makers; not all follow a rights-based approach as entrenched within international human rights law. The objective of this paper is to investigate the decision-making processes and related outcomes of the Security Council from the perspective of international law. At the core of this investigation is an analysis of two interconnected dynamics: first the extent to which the Council is bound – under the Charter of the United Nations – by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and second the extent to which the Council is in compliance with these obligations. This includes de-constructing the resolutions from the perspective of the procedural right of the best interests of the child and also assessing the outcomes with reference to the Council’s primary responsibility – the maintenance of peace and security. Attentive to the normative power of the Security Council’s decisions and recommendations, the paper cuts deeper to investigate: (i) the legal effects of the resolutions for the development international law relating to children and (ii) the consequences for children’s right to protection from serious violations of international law – present and future.
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24)
See Human Rights Committee, ‘Non-discrimination’ General Comment 18 (11 October 1989) U.N. Doc., para. 5; Human Rights Committee ‘Implementation at national level’ General Comment 3 (29 July 1981) U.N. Doc. para 1; and Human Rights Committee ‘The nature of the general legal obligation’ General Comment No. 31 (29 March 2004) U.N. Doc., para. 6 and 7. See also G. Van Bueren, The International Law on the Rights of the Child, (Leiden: Martinus Nijhuff Publishers, 1995), 391.
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32)
I. Brownlie, Principles of public international law (Seventh edition) (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), 4, 691, 692. See generally D. Shelton, ‘Introduction, Law: non-law and the problem of ‘soft law” D. Shelton (ed.) Commitment and compliance: the role non-binding norms in the international legal system (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 1.
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99)
Hammarberg, ibid, 6-9. Also see P. Alston ‘The legal framework of the Convention on the Rights of the Child’ Bulletin of human rights: the rights of the child 91/2 (New York: United Nations, 1992), 7.
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110)
See above, p. 12-13. There are extensive references to this rule of humanitarian law within the eighth resolution. See, U.N. Security Council Resolution 1998 (12 July 2011) UN Doc. S/RES/1998 (2011), preamble, paras. 1 and 3.
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145)
See above, p. 17-20.
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146)
See above, p. 2-4.
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UN Security Council Resolutions Concerning Children Affected by Armed Conflict: In Whose ‘Best Interest’?
In: The International Journal of Children's RightsSearch for other papers by Sarah M. Field in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
The agreement by the Security Council to adopt thematic resolutions on children is a powerful expression of our collective commitment to children and their rights: specifically to ensuring children’s right to protection from serious violations of international law. Still history is replete with examples of protectionism by powerful decision-makers; not all follow a rights-based approach as entrenched within international human rights law. The objective of this paper is to investigate the decision-making processes and related outcomes of the Security Council from the perspective of international law. At the core of this investigation is an analysis of two interconnected dynamics: first the extent to which the Council is bound – under the Charter of the United Nations – by the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC); and second the extent to which the Council is in compliance with these obligations. This includes de-constructing the resolutions from the perspective of the procedural right of the best interests of the child and also assessing the outcomes with reference to the Council’s primary responsibility – the maintenance of peace and security. Attentive to the normative power of the Security Council’s decisions and recommendations, the paper cuts deeper to investigate: (i) the legal effects of the resolutions for the development international law relating to children and (ii) the consequences for children’s right to protection from serious violations of international law – present and future.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 250 | 43 | 6 |
| Full Text Views | 220 | 9 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 122 | 29 | 0 |