Unfulfilled treaty obligations

Name(s):

Transgression of international agreements

Breaching international treaties

Treaty violations

Disregard of international law

Abuse of international law

Non-implementation of international treaty provisions

Violation of international conventions

Violation of international agreements

Nature

A new international anarchy has arisen in recent years that defies international decisions on treaty provisions, specifically those initiated and/or made by the United Nations. This lack of adherence to a previously agreed upon decision-making body threatens to undermine security on both national and international levels.

Incidence

In 1982, the Secretary-General of the UN stated that the UN Security Council often found itself unable to take decisive action to resolve international conflicts, and even its unanimous resolutions were "increasingly defied or ignored by those that feel themselves strong enough to do so". He observed that sterner measures for world peace were envisaged in the UN Charter, but that the prospect of realizing them now was virtually impossible, due to divisions within the international community.

Specific incidents of non-compliance include Lebanon and the Middle East crisis; the Iran-Iraq war; Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and American assistance to the resistance; Vietnamese invasion of Kampuchea; and the Cyprus situation.

In 1998, before a rebuke from its Foreign Affairs Minister, Belgium had not implemented 205 pieces of European legislation, a non-implementation rate of 8.5 percent. Only Italy had a worse record. One of the main reasons for the lengthy delays in making EU directives law is Belgium's complex federal structure.

Counter-claim

Some reasons for the decline in strength of the UN Charter and Security Council lie within the UN itself: dangerous situations could perhaps be diffused before they reached the point of crisis if the Council kept an active watch on them by more systematic and less last-minute measures; the permanent members of the Security Council (China, France, UK, USA, USSR) should not allow their own bilateral difficulties to overshadow their commitment to the Council; the Council members should bear more collective influence when resolutions are not respected by those to whom they are addressed; the Council should devise wider and more systematic capacities for fact-finding in potential conflict areas and should be more responsive in sending good office missions, observers, or a UN presence, to such areas; and there should be explicit guarantees for collective or individual supportive action.

Broader

Inaction on problems

Inadequate marine services

Lack of international cooperation

Inadequate international law enforcement

Narrower

Illegal international arms shipments

Non-recognition of international law

Covert violation of international treaties

Violation of treaties with indigenous populations

Limited observance of multilateral trade agreements

Ineffectiveness of international commodity agreements