The UN Security Council and Its Protective Function

The Security Council, a political organ openly professing the primacy of politics, is at the same time the most authoritative organ of the United Nations. Humanity faces unprecedented existential threats from climate change, environmental destruction, rising oceans, survival threats to entire nations and widespread atrocities. To meet these threats, the Security Council would need to exercise a growing protective function in the future. For the first time, this book documents the protection practice, doctrine and body of law or jurisprudence of the Security Council with the aim of helping the Council develop its protective function. It is a vital work for the future protection of humanity and an important resource tor all those interested in the workings of the Security Council and internationalpeace and security.

Professor Bertrand G. Ramcharan, a Barrister of Lincoln’s Inn, London, holds degrees in philosophy, history and law. He has been Chief Speechwriter for the UN Secretary-General, Director of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, Director in the UN Political Department, Deputy and then Acting High Commissioner for Human Rights, Professor at the Geneva Graduate Institute, Chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor of International Law at the University of Ottawa, Visiting Professor at Columbia University and at Lund University, Sweden. He is the author of numerous works on human rights and international law.