CYIL vol. 8 (2017)

ČESTMÍR ČEPELKA CYIL 8 ȍ2017Ȏ 22 December 2014, following a procedural vote of 11 in favor to 2 against (China, Russian Federation), with 2 abstentions (Chad, Nigeria), puts the situation on the Council’s agenda. 28 DPRK is an ally of China, which, as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, does not have veto power in procedural votes like setting the agenda . China would be able to use its veto power to block a decision to refer the report to the International Criminal Court, making it very unlikely that such a resolution would pass. The matter continues. This is given by the following resolution A/RES/71/202 of 19 December 2016, by which the matter is again in play. 29 The concerned resolutions of the UN General Assembly remain nevertheless a means of diplomatic pressure of the international community. 30 In 2017, the situation with North Korea has deteriorated. The regime not only does not obey requirements of the UN Security Council to act in accordance with Chapter VII of the UN Charter. 31 It is directly threatening to destroy the United States with a nuclear bomb. The US are therefore sending the aircraft carriers USS Ronald Regan and USS Carl Vinson with many aircraft to the nearest possible site. As an ally, China is still quiet. Apart from suspending all coal imports from North Korea on February 2017, it has taken no steps. The world is waiting to see what will happen. The 5 August 2017 resolution (S/RES/2371) has changed the situation. It is evident that Islamist terrorist movements which have proper control in the countries concerned or parts of local territory are also responsible for crimes against humanity, mainly the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The United Nations holds ISIL responsible for human rights abuses and war crimes, including violations against women as well as mass graves, and Amnesty International 32 has charged the group with religious cleansing (convert or die) on a “historic scale” in northern Iraq. In Syria, the group has conducted ground attacks against both government forces and opposition fractions. By December 2015, the so-called Islamic State covered a vast landlocked territory in western Iraq and eastern Syria, with an estimated population of 8 million people, where it enforces its interpretation of sharia law. 33 ISIL is now believed to be operational in many countries across the world, including Afghanistan and Pakistan, with “aspiring branches” in Mali, Egypt, Somalia, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. Responsible ISIL members can be tried only by domestic courts and not by the International Criminal Court after the armed activity-insurrection is over, and if they are still alive. The 29 By stipulating (in para. 20) (the resolution) “decides to continue its examination of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea at its seventy-second session (2017), and to this end requests the Secretary-General to submit a comprehensive report on the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and requests the Special Rapporteur to continue to report his findings and recommendations, as well as to report on the follow-up to the implementation of the recommendations of the commission of inquiry.” 30 See http://www.answers.com/Q/What_is_diplomatic_pressure. 31 The heading of the chapter is: “Action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression”. 32 See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International. 33 See https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia_law. 28 UN Charter, Art. 27(2) – “Decisions of the Security Council on procedural matters shall be made by an affirmative vote of nine members.”

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