UN: What happens if Iraq fails to co-operate with the UN inspectors? Patrick Smyth explains the UN charter mechanism for taking military action and how it would affect Ireland
In passing the Iraq weapons inspections resolution, the UN Security Council was acting under chapter VII of the charter of the United Nations, effectively the organisation's constitution.
Chapter VII gives it teeth as a robust instrument of global collective security. It makes it more than a political talking shop. How is this so?
Chapter VII authorises the use of military action, setting out clearly the role of the Security Council and the obligations of member-states, Ireland included, to assist in its purpose.
Ireland, France and the other members of the Security Council, who have balked at giving the US a hidden trigger authorising it to launch an attack if Iraq obstructs inspectors, have pointed repeatedly to the requirements of article 39.
This provides that the Security Council alone "shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace or act of aggression and shall make recommendations or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security".
Should the UN require a member-state such as Iraq to comply with a specific requirement of the council, article 40 makes clear that it is the Security Council itself which is required to assess the failure.
These provisions are understood in Dublin and Paris to make a second-stage resolution necessary before action is taken. The US view, however, is that authority has already been provided for in resolutions which go back to 1990.
In the charter's opening chapter, under the heading Purposes and Principles, article 2 (5) outlines a specific and often-forgotten obligation on member-states clearly:
"All Members shall give the United Nations every assistance in any action it takes in accordance with the present Charter and shall refrain from giving assistance to any state against which the United Nations is taking preventive or enforcement action."
Chapter VII puts that obligation into effect. Although the requirement is on all members to assist UN-mandated operations, the degree to which they do so is subject to negotiation with the Secretary General.
In other words, Ireland may, if military action is sanctioned, seek to limit itself to expressions of support. But for a Security Council member, or a member which supports the UN as the main vehicle of global collective security, to do so would be likely to be politically embarrassing.
At the very least, it is likely that UN-sanctioned action against Iraq would be able to rely on stopover facilities in Ireland being approved by the Government.
But if the US does not win Security Council endorsement at the second stage for military action, all bets are off.