The USA has often used the United Nations to legitimise its actions around the world, ignoring its wishes when the international community disagreed with USA policy.
"The issue of no fly zones was not raised and therefore not debated: not a word. They offer no legitimacy to countries sending their aircraft to attack Iraq. They are illegal".
The bombings occurred from 1992 to 2003. Between July 1998 and January 2000, the USA flew 36,000 missions over Iraq. In 1999 alone, USA and UK aircraft dropped over 1,800 bombs hitting 450 targets. This was the longest Anglo-American bombing campaign since World War II with bombing occuring on a daily basis. Yet it was mostly ignored by the media in the West.
Since 1967, Israel has occupied the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. East Jerusalem was annexed.
In 1973 Israel occupied the Golan Heights from Syria. The Golan Heights was annexed by Israel in 1981. Apart from United Nations resolutions, this annexation violates the cease fire agreement between Israel and Syria and the Camp David Accords.
The following are some of the United Nations resolutions being ignored by Israel.
Resolution |
Notes / Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 194 | 1948 | The right of Palestinian refugees to return. This resolution has been reaffirmed 135 times. |
| 252 | 1968 | Concering the legal status of East Jerusalem and the responsibility of occupying powers. |
| 267 | 1969 | |
| 271 | 1969 | |
| 298 | 1971 | |
| 592 | 1986 | |
| 262 | 1968 | Payment of compensation to Lebanon for the destruction of airliners in Beirut International Airport. |
| 446 | 1979 | Prohibit Israel's policy of moving its own civilian population into the occupied Palestinian territories. Calls for a reversal of these policies. Forbids "settlers" using violence against the Palestinian population. |
| 452 | 1979 | |
| 465 | 1980 | |
| 605 | 1987 | |
| 672 | 1990 | |
| 673 | 1990 | |
| 681 | 1990 | |
| 904 | 1994 | |
| 1073 | 1996 | |
| 1322 | 2000 | |
| 471 | 1980 | Call for prosecution of those responsible for assassination attempts on Palestinian leaders and for damages compensation. |
| 484 | 1980 | |
| 487 | 1981 | Calls on Israel to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the United Nations Atomic Energy Agency. |
| 497 | 1981 | Demands that Israel does not apply its domestic laws onto the occupied Syrian Golan Heights. |
| 573 | 1985 | Israel to pay compensation after its attack on Tunisia and to refrain from making or threatening such attacks. |
| 607 | 1986 | Call on Israel to abide by the Geneva Convention and to stop deporting Palestinians from the occupied territories. Call for the immediate return of deportees. |
| 608 | 1988 | |
| 636 | 1989 | |
| 641 | 1989 | |
| 694 | 1991 | |
| 726 | 1992 | |
| 799 | 1992 | |
| 1402 | 2002 | Call for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities and to allow United Nations inspectors to investigate civilian deaths in Jenin. Call on Israel to stop destroying Palestinian civilian and security infrastructure. |
| 1403 | 2002 | |
| 1405 | 2002 | |
| 1435 | 2002 |
Despite the above ignored resolutions, the USA continues to finance Israel to the tune of $1,800 million per year. The USA also gives political support to Israel. This often involves vetoing proposed United Nations resolutions against Israel.
In 1981 alone, The USA vetoed 18 United Nations resolutions concerning Israel. These included resolutions that:
Time and again the overwhelming will of the international community has been thwarted by the USA's protection of Israel. In 2002, Israel blocked a United Nations enquiry into the events in Jenin where the United Nations Commission for Refugees reported that Israeli soldiers smashed medical equipment even though there was no fighting. In Jenin the Israelis stopped medical help getting through. Stopping rescue services from treating the injured is a violation of the Geneva Conventions.
On 28th March 2001 the USA vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for the deployment of unarmed monitors to the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. In November 2002, the USA vetoed a resolution condemning the killing of a British United Nations aid worker, Iain Hook who was 54. In October 2004, the USA vetoed a United Nations resolution condemning the killing of over 150 people, nearly half of them children, by Israeli forces in Gaza.
These are some of the United Nations resolutions being violated by Turkey. This country is a member of NATO and houses USA bases.
Resolutions |
Notes / Description | |
|---|---|---|
| 353 354 360 364 367 370 391 401 414 422 440 | 1974 to 1978 | Withdrawal of invading troops from Cyprus. |
| 573 550 716 | 1985 to 1991 | Demand that the declaration of an independent Turkish Cypriot state be withdrawn. |
| 1092 117 1178 1217 1251 1283 1303 1331 1384 1416 | 1996 to 2002 | Call for a reduction and eventual withdrawal of occupying troops from Cyprus. |
These are some of the United Nations resolutions being violated by Morocco.
Resolutions |
Years Passed | Notes / Description |
|---|---|---|
| 377 379 380 658 690 809 973 995 1002 1017 1033 1056 | 1979 to 1996 | To respect the rights of self determination of the Western Sahara. |
| 1185 1215 1359 | 1998 to 2001 | Call on Morocco to lift restrictions on United Nations peace keeping forces and to release all detainees held since the beginning of the conflict. |
These are some of the United Nations resolutions being violated by Croatia.
Resolutions |
Years Passed | Notes / Description |
|---|---|---|
| 807 815 | 1993 | Demand return of heavy weapons seized from United Nations storage areas. |
| 1009 1079 1120 1145 | 1995 to 1997 | Call on Croatia to respect the rights of its Serb population to remain, leave or return in safety. |
United Nations resolutions are also being ignored by Armenia, Sudan, India, Pakistan, Russia and Indonesia.
The USA was condemned by the World Court but continued this destabilisation until 1990 when a USA backed party, the National Opposition Union was elected by a small margin after being given huge amounts of money to fight the election.
The USA ignored and undermined the World Court. On previous occasions, the USA had used the Court against various states but on this occasion, the Court was denounced and its ruling ignored. The USA newspaper, New York Times, supported of the USA refusal to accept the Court's ruling, calling the Court a "hostile forum."
The USA State Department Legal Adviser, Abraham Sofaer, stated that "The United States does not accept compulsory jurisdiction over any dispute involving matters essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of the United States, as determined by the United States." This "domestic jurisdiction" was the destabilisation of another country's democratically elected government.
In 1987 the USA vetoed two United Nations resolutions calling for compliance in the International Court of Justice concerning military and paramilitary activities against Nicaragua and a call to end the trade embargo against Nicaragua.
The UK government of Margaret Thatcher supported and endorsed USA actions in Central America. The Rupert Murdoch owned UK newspaper, The Times stated: "[The USA actions] maintain and strengthen the forces of democracy in an area threatened with a communist takeover."
However, Oxfam, an international development organisation that works in nearly 80 developing countries, stated that Nicaragua was "exceptional in the strength of [its] government's commitment... to improving the condition of the people and encouraging their active participation in the development process".
Horatio Arce, one of the Contra rebels destabilising Nicaragua, admitted in 1988 that he was trained in a USA base in the southern USA and was funded by the Agency for International Development from the USA embassy in Tegucigalpa in Honduras. He admitted: "We attack lots of schools, health centres and those sort of things. We have tried to make it so that the Nicaraguan government cannot provide social services for the peasants, cannot develop its project... that's the idea".
