UN United nations
POSITIVES
- UNAMET in East Timor, established in 1999 to ensure a fairly run vote on if East Timor would leave Indonesia, leading to a 98% turnout rate due to intervention
- 87% of the UNs peacekeeping operations being successful, compared to the 50% success rate of other peace operations, according to the RAND institute
NEGATIVES
- veto system, according to research.un.org, Russia used 16 veto’s against UN aid in Syria, due to political interests
- “gives legitimacy to dictatorial and often terrible regimes… such as North Korea, China, Iran and Syria are all full UN member states,” – humanitarian carrers.com
R2P Responsibility to Protect
POSITIVES
- Allowed international community to respond to situations of humanitarian abuses e.g. “never again” after Rwanda.
E.g Resolution 1973 on Libya in 2011
- Operates to prevent genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, mass atrocities.
NEGATIVES
- States in the UNSC cannot agree, The permanent 5 have diverging perspectives e.g. Syria, China and Russia have vetoed 9 times.
- No independent agency to enforce R2P relies on co-operation of member states for enforcement
NPT Non-proliferation Treaty
POSITIVES
- Effective in disarming both South Africa and the Ukraine (who had 3000 nuclear warheads)
- NPT is the most widely signed arms treaty of the world with 190 State parties`
NEGATIVES
- The NPT has failed to disarm 90% of the worlds nuclear weapons with Russia and the USA.
- NPT fails to deal with non compliant states such as DPRK who withdrew in 2003.
ICRC International Committee of the Red Cross
POSITIVES
- Undeniable successes in mitigating the impacts of conflicts (e.g. 16.9 MILLION benefited from water and habitat projects)
- Yemen
More than 1,000 former detainees in relation to the conflict in Yemen were transported back to their homes by the ICRC
NEGATIVES
- “Humanitarians can put a bandage on the patient. But it’s only States that can cure that patient.” – ICRC’s director of operations
- Access is dependent on consent of countries
