Advisory Opinion To The International Court Of — страница 3

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bound to this convention. IV. Summary The primary responsibility of the UN Security Council is to maintain international peace and security. Under Article 24, the Security Council has primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security. The Security Council used their powers under this Article, as well as Article 24, to pass resolution 1267 calling for sanctions against the Taliban. Bringing Osama Bin Laden to trial for his actions was a means by which the United Nations Security Council took measures by which to ensure security. The call by the Security Council to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice does have its merits, and is legally justified under current international law. Bin Laden has been implicated in acts of terrorism all over the world, and his

financial backing, while weakening, is still considerable. By getting Afghanistan to turn Bin Laden over to the proper authorities, a measure of peace and security can be attained once again. By bringing him to trial, these prevailing instruments of international law that apply to terrorism can be viewed in force. V. Post-Session Opinion After the special session of the International Court of Justice, held on December 1, 1999, my opinion regarding the legality of imposing sanctions against the Taliban changed. After several hours of discussing the merits of this action and what other steps should have been taken, I now find myself in the unusual position of completely changing my view on this issue. During the discussion, four main questions became apparent: 1. Were all other

options attempted before imposing sanctions? The first question, regarding what, if any, other options were first taken, was the one of paramount importance. Unless all other steps had been taken, the Security Council would have jumped the gun and moved too soon to impose sanctions. While there was scattered evidence indicating that there had indeed been some sort of discussion between the U.S. government and the Taliban regarding a deal for bringing Bin Laden to trial, nothing was certain. All evidence pointing to this fact pointed to the fact that neither side had tried too hard. Further complicating matters is the fact that there was an insufficient amount of information from any of the members of the panel that clearly proved whether or not all other measures had first been

taken. Article 33 of the UN Charter was used repeatedly to illustrate the need for these other steps to be taken first. Personally, I felt that while Article 33 did call for this, Article 41, which gives the Security Council authority to step in after determining that a threat to peace exists under Article 39 of the Charter, authorizes the Security Council to use any measures short of military force, including the complete or partial interruption of economic relations (UN Charter, Article 41). Therefore, I felt strongly that the issue of whether or not other options had been considered was irrelevant. But the rest of the group disagreed, and thought that since insufficient evidence was available to determine if other measures had been taken that the answer was no. 2. Who has

jurisdiction over Bin Laden? This question was also interesting in that it called into question who should be responsible for trying Bin Laden if he is brought up for trial. Since the bombings in question took place in Kenya and Tanzania, the committee thought that they would have had first opportunity to try him. However, the fact that these bombings took place at United States Embassies meant that the US also had jurisdiction. This fact, although unimportant in the end, was largely ignored after brought up briefly in the beginning of the session. Another question affecting the jurisdiction issue was the question of whether or not the Taliban was the de facto government of Afghanistan. The fact that the Afghan representatives were not from the Taliban clouded this issue amidst

questions of command, control, and recognition. This question was ultimately split, as the voting members of the committee (Kenya/Tanzania, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan excluded) could not reach consensus on whether the Taliban or the United States should have jurisdiction in this case. The Taliban had apparently made overtures to United States officials regarding a deal, but the US refusal to come to terms left questions. The answer to this question was ultimately determined with the next question. 3. Should Osama Bin Laden be extradited? The question of whether Osama Bin Laden should be extradited was yet another point of contention. Since the Taliban was receiving little or no cooperation from other nations in terms of gathering evidence from which to begin court proceedings,