Under the titled “Peace and Security in Africa” of S/RES/1970, the United Nations Security Council issued one of two resolutions that currently serves as the basis of support for the action in Libya by Western countries. The resolution itself is based largely on the concept of responsibility to protect, an element that is being developed under the aegis of the United Nations and other international bodies that are still far from being established international law. The concerns on this concept have been explored elsewhere, this piece will focus on how it was applied in the case of Libya. The underlining rational that supports S/RES/1970 is based on alleviating the suffering of local population under the international responsibility to protect while reaffirming their commitment to Libyan sovereignty in all its elements. The resolution acts under Chapter VII, which deals with threats to peace and security, but under the article 41, that deals with means to tackle those threats not involving armed forces.
The preamble evokes mainly concern over violations of human rights while condemning the use of violence and force against civilian population. It recalls previous actions by different international bodies on the situation in Libya, such a resolution of the Human Rights Council, expressions of condemnation by the Arab League, African Union and the Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. It moves on expressing concerns with fate and conditions of refugees, reported shortages of medical supplies, the possibility that the some governmental actions might be crimes against humanity, safety of foreign nationals, and the Libyan authorities’ responsibility to protect its population. It also calls for the importance of freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of the media. It calls for accountability regarding the attacks that took place and recalling how investigations under the International Criminal Court goes about. All these concerns are piled up with the UN commitment to Libyan sovereignty and having in mind that the primary responsibility of the Council is with maintenance of international peace and security, while acting under Chapter VII.
The operative clauses begin calling for immediate end to the violence and at the same time calling for the fulfilment of legitimate demands of the population, with little indication on what would be legitimate or illegitimate. It also urges that Libyan authorities to act with restraint and respect of human rights, to ensure safety of foreign nationals, safe passage of humanitarian and medial supplies and also lifting all restrictions on media. The Council also poses a request for all Member States to cooperate when possible in the evacuation of foreign nationals. The next section on the resolution deals with referring the situation in Libya since February 15th, 2011 to the International Criminal Court, while calling the authorities to cooperate fully with the Court and its procedures. It rounds up the elements of the ICC, by inviting the Prosecutor to address the Council within two months of S/RES/1970 and afterwards every six months; and stating that the United Nations shall borne the costs of the process, but this burden will fall upon the Rome Statute members and voluntary contributors.
The resolution moves to a section that deals with arms embargo, which decides that all Member State shall take necessary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply of arms and related material to Libya. Nonetheless, this embargo ought not apply to non-lethal military equipment, protective clothing or material approved by the Committee that this very resolution creates. The embargo also calls for cessation of the export of all arms and related material by Libya. It confers all States authority to inspect cargo to and from Libya. It also calls States that seize these material to dispose of those items while submitting an initial written report to the Committee explaining how the actions took place. It also encourages Member States to discourage their nationals from travelling to Libya to deal with governmental activities.
Following the arms embargo, the resolution moves on to discuss travel ban and asset freeze to individuals and corporations that are listed in the annexes of the resolution. The individuals listed on annex I of S/RES/1970 are not to be granted entrance or transit in the UN Member States, unless they are citizens of that country, or they are justified to the Committee or necessary for judicial process, reconciliation efforts or to advance peace. The freeze of assets is called for the entities listed in annex II of S/RES/1970 and it to be pursue immediately, but with the clear principle that it shall be made available to and for the benefit of the Libyan people in the future. As in the case of travel bans, it shall not apply in these circumstances: basic expenses, extraordinary expenses or related to judicial, administrative or arbitral lien or judgment. Additionally, funds can still be added to the frozen accounts and they are allowed to be used for making payments under a contract that initiated before the freezing of the assets took place.
The following section discusses the individuals and entities that ought to be placed under the restrictions. To be in either annex I or II, they ought to be involved in the commission of serious human rights abuses, or acting of behalf of entities or individuals that are committing serious human rights abuses. The Member States are encourage to submit names to the Committee to be considered for sanctions under the guidelines set. In order to administrate the freezing of assets, arms embargo and other restrictions, S/RES/1970 creates a new sanctions Committee. The functions of the new Committee are to monitor implementation of the measures, to designate the individuals that are subject to the measures described, establish guidelines, report to the Council within 30 days, encourage dialogue and exchange of information by the States and to examine the violations and non-compliance with the measures developed in the resolution. S/RES/1970 calls upon all the Member States to report to the Committee within 120 days on the efforts to implement the measures of the resolution.
The next section deals with humanitarian assistance and calls upon all Member States to work together and act in cooperation with the Secretary General to create an environment that allow the return of humanitarian agencies to Libya. It also calls on the States to keep the Council informed on progress in the areas. The last portion of the resolution, before remaining actively seized of the matter, is on the commitment to continuous review of the appropriateness and effectiveness of the measures, which combines with the actively seized. The annex I includes sixteen names of leaders of the Libyan government, many part of Qadhafi’s family. The six names on annex II for asset freezing are also mainly part of Qadhafi’s family.
All in all, S/RES/1970 aims to tackle Libyan leadership by restricting their flight privileges, freezing assets and referring the situation to the ICC. These are indeed measures that are generally one step before actual use of force and rely entirely on the buy-in on the part of the Member States. The resolution will undoubtedly require a certain amount of time in order to promote the type of choking the leadership of the Libyan regime, in addition of creating another bureaucracy under the Security Council to go along with all the other sanctions committees already in place.
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