It's called “Article 99.” And it hasn't been used for decades. Until this week.
With an intensifying Israeli offensive and escalating civilian casualties, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres this week invoked a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an impending “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. He urged members to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
Guterres invoked Article 99 of the UN Charter – last used more than half a century ago – which states that the Secretary-General may inform the Council of matters that he believes threaten international peace and security.
Here, Edith M. Lederer, longtime chief UN correspondent for The Associated Press, explains what this could mean.
It is a provision of the United Nations Charter, the UN Constitution. It says the secretary general – the UN's top diplomat – may bring to the attention of the Security Council “any matter which, in his opinion, may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
This gives important additional power to the Secretary General, since the real power at the UN is in the hands of the 193 member states and especially the 15 countries that sit on the Security Council.
Article 99 is used extremely rarely. The last time it was invoked was during the 1971 fighting that led to the creation of Bangladesh and its separation from Pakistan.
Guterres invoked Article 99 because he sees the situation in Gaza at risk of a “complete collapse” of the humanitarian system and civil order in the area. It was something he felt had to be done.
Arab and Muslim countries immediately responded to Guterres' letter.
The United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the Security Council, circulated a short resolution among Security Council members late Wednesday calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. They plan to put that resolution to a vote at a Security Council meeting on Friday morning.
The United States, Israel's closest ally and which has veto power over resolutions, has not supported a ceasefire. On Tuesday, US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said the Security Council's role in the Israel-Gaza war is not to get in the way of the important diplomacy taking place. And he said the Security Council resolution “would not be helpful” at this time.
This could indicate a likely veto, but the US has made neither statement.
Because Guterres believes that the humanitarian system and operations in Gaza are collapsing.
He also warns in his letter that in the current situation, “amid continuous bombardments by the Israeli army and without shelter or essential facilities for survival, I expect that public order will soon completely collapse due to the desperate conditions, causing even limited humanitarian aid becomes impossible. .”
Guterres said the situation could get worse, pointing to possible epidemics and the mass movement of Palestinians to neighboring countries. He sees an impending disaster.
Previous Secretaries-General have referred threats they perceived to international peace and security to the Security Council without mentioning Article 99. This includes Congo in 1960, the US hostage crisis in Iran that began in November 1979, the Iran-Iraq War in 1980, and most recently Myanmar in 2017.
We don't know why they didn't invoke Article 99, and some of the previous Secretaries-General are now dead. Guterres has been very outspoken about both the Hamas attacks on Israel and the very high death toll among Palestinian civilians in Gaza.