It is called “Article 99”. And it hasn't been used for decades. Until this week. With an intensifying Israeli offensive and rising civilian casualties, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this week invoked a rarely exercised power to warn the Security Council of an imminent “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza. He urged members to demand an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.
This decision has been harshly criticized by Israel through its Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, who criticized Guterres' work and alleged that his position implies supporting Hamas.
"Guterres' mandate is a danger to world peace. His request to activate Article 99 and the call for a ceasefire in Gaza constitutes support for the terrorist organization Hamas and support for the murder of the elderly, the kidnapping of babies and the rape of women," Cohen said on the social account X (formerly Twitter).
Guterres invoked Article 99 of the United Nations Charter (last used decades ago) which says the secretary-general can report to the council on matters he believes threaten international peace and security. Edith M. Lederer, The Associated Press' longtime senior United Nations correspondent, explains what this could mean.
It is a provision of the Charter of the United Nations, the Constitution of the United Nations. It states that the Secretary-General (the UN's top diplomat) can bring to the attention of the Security Council "any matter which, in his opinion, may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security."
This grants important additional power to the Secretary General, since the real power in the UN is held by its 193 member countries and especially the 15 countries that are part of the Security Council.
Article 99 is very rarely used. The last time it was expressly invoked was in 1989, in a letter from the then Secretary General Pérez de Cuéllar to the Security Council about the situation in Lebanon. Guterres has used Article 99 because he considers that the situation in Gaza risks a “total collapse” of the territory's humanitarian and civil system. order. It was something he felt needed to be done.
Arab and Islamic nations followed up on Guterres' letter immediately. The United Arab Emirates, the Arab representative on the Security Council, circulated a brief resolution to Security Council members on Wednesday night calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. They plan to put that resolution to a vote at a Security Council meeting.
The United States, which is Israel's closest ally and has veto power over the resolutions, has not supported a ceasefire. On Tuesday, Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood said the Security Council's role in the Israel-Gaza war is not to hinder the important diplomacy being carried out. And he said that the Security Council resolution at this time "would not be useful." This could indicate a probable veto, but the United States has not said anything to the contrary.
Because Guterres believes that the humanitarian system and the humanitarian operations in Gaza are collapsing. He also warns in his letter that in the current situation, “amidst constant shelling by the Israel Defense Forces and without shelter or essential elements for survival, I hope that public order will completely collapse soon due to the desperate conditions ”. , making even limited humanitarian assistance impossible.”
Guterres said the situation could worsen further, pointing to possible epidemics and the mass displacement of Palestinians to neighboring countries. He sees an impending disaster.
Previous secretaries-general have presented the Security Council with threats they considered to international peace and security without mentioning Article 99, such as the Iraq war in 1980 and more recently the Myanmar war in 2017.
