Functions and powers of the
Security Council of the United Nations
Mandate
The UN Charter established six main organs of the United Nations, including the Security Council. It gives
primary responsibility for maintaining international peace and security to the Security Council, which may
meet whenever peace is threatened.
According to the Charter, the United Nations has four purposes:
•
to maintain international peace and security;
•
to develop friendly relations among nations;
•
to cooperate in solving international problems and in promoting respect for human rights;
•
and to be a centre for harmonizing the actions of nations.
All members of the United Nations agree to accept and carry out the decisions of the Security Council. While
other organs of the United Nations make recommendations to member states, only the Security Council has
the power to make decisions that member states are then obligated to implement under the Charter.
Maintaining Peace and Security
When a complaint concerning a threat to peace is brought before it, the Council’s first action is usually to
recommend that the parties try to reach agreement by peaceful means. The Council may:
•
set forth principles for such an agreement;
•
undertake investigation and mediation, in some cases;
•
dispatch a mission;
•
appoint special envoys; or
•
request the Secretary-General to use his good offices to achieve a pacific settlement of the dispute.
When a dispute leads to hostilities, the Council’s primary concern is to bring them to an end as soon as
possible. In that case, the Council may:
•
issue ceasefire directives that can help prevent an escalation of the conflict;
•
Dispatch military observers or a peacekeeping force to help reduce tensions, separate opposing
forces and establish a calm in which peaceful settlements may be sought.
Beyond this, the Council may opt for enforcement measures, including:
•
economic sanctions, arms embargoes, financial penalties and restrictions, and travel bans;
•
severance of diplomatic relations;
•
blockade;
•
or even collective military action.
A chief concern is to focus action on those responsible for the policies or practices condemned by the
international community, while minimizing the impact of the measures taken on other parts of the population
and economy.
Organization
The Security Council held its first session on 17 January 1946 at Church House, Westminster, London.
Since its first meeting, the Security Council has taken permanent residence at the United Nations
Headquarters in New York City. It also travelled to many cities, holding sessions in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in
1972, in Panama City, Panama, and in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1990.
A representative of each of its members must be present at all times at UN Headquarters so that the
Security Council can meet at any time as the need arises.
(ref. http://www.un.org/en/sc/about/)
I. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has its roots in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with the birth of major
nationalist movements among the Jews and among the Arabs, both geared towards attaining sovereignty for
their people in the Middle East. The collision between those two forces in southern Levant and the
emergence of Palestinian nationalism in the 1920s eventually escalated into the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in
1947 and expanded into the wider Arab–Israeli conflict later on.
With the outcome of the First World War, the relations between Zionism and the Arab national movement
seemed to be potentially friendly, and the Faisal–Weizmann Agreement created a framework for both
aspirations to coexist on the former Ottoman Empire's territories. However, with the defeat and dissolution of
the Arab Kingdom of Syria in July 1920 following the Franco-Syrian War, a crisis fell upon the Damascusbased Arab national movement.
The return of several hard-line Palestinian Arab nationalists, under the emerging leadership of Haj Amin alHusseini, from Damascus to Mandatory Palestine marked the beginning of Palestinian Arab nationalist
struggle towards establishment of a national home for Arabs of Palestine.
Amin al-Husseini, the architect of the Palestinian Arab national movement, immediately marked Jewish
national movement and Jewish immigration to Palestine as the sole enemy to his cause, initiating large-scale
riots against the Jews as early as 1920 in Jerusalem and in 1921 in Jaffa. Among the results of the violence
was the establishment of the Jewish paramilitary force Haganah. In 1929, a series of violent anti-Jewish
riots was
initiated
by
the
Arab
leadership.
The
riots
resulted
in
massive
Jewish
casualties
in Hebron and Safed and the evacuation of Jews from Hebron and Gaza.
In the early 1930s, the Arab national struggle in Palestine had drawn many Arab nationalist militants from
across the Middle East, most notably Sheikh Izaddin al-Qassam from Syria, who established the Black Hand
militant group and had prepared the grounds for the 1936 Arab revolt.
Following the death of al-Qassam at the hands of the British in late 1935, the tensions erupted in 1936 into
the Arab general strike and general boycott. The strike soon deteriorated into violence and the bloodily
repressed 1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine against the British and the Jews. It was finally motivated by
opposition to mass Jewish immigration.
In the first wave of organized violence, lasting until early 1937, much of the Arab gangs were defeated by the
British and a forced expulsion of much of the Arab leadership was performed. The revolt led to the
establishment of the Peel Commission towards partitioning of Palestine, though was subsequently rejected
by the Palestinian Arabs. The two main Jewish leaders, Chaim Weizmann and David Ben-Gurion, accepted
the recommendations but some secondary Jewish leaders did not like it.
The renewed violence, which had sporadically lasted until the beginning of World War II, ended with around
5,000 casualties, mostly from the Arab side. With the eruption of World War II, the situation in Mandatory
Palestine calmed down. It allowed a shift towards a more moderate stance among Palestinian Arabs, under
the leadership of the Nashashibi clan and even the establishment of the Jewish–Arab Palestine
Regiment under British command, fighting Germans in North Africa.
The more radical exiled faction of al-Husseini thus tended to cooperation with Nazi Germany, and
participated in the establishment of pro-Nazi propaganda machine throughout the Arab world. Defeat of Arab
nationalists in Iraq and subsequent relocation of al-Husseini to Nazi-occupied Europe tied his hands
regarding field operations in Palestine, though he regularly demanded the Italians and the Germans to bomb
Tel Aviv.
By the end of World War II, a crisis
over
the
fate
of
the
Holocaust
survivors from Europe led to renewed
tensions between the Yishuv and the
Palestinian
Arab
leadership.
Immigration quotas were established
by the British, while on the other hand
illegal
immigration
and
Zionist
insurgency against the British was
increasing.
On 29 November 1947, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted RES/181 recommending the
adoption and implementation of a plan to partition Palestine into an Arab state, a Jewish state and the City of
Jerusalem.On the next day, Palestine was already swept by violence, with Arab and Jewish militias
executing attacks. For four months, under continuous Arab provocation and attack, the Yishuv was usually
on the defensive while occasionally retaliating. The Arab League supported the Arab struggle by forming the
volunteer based Arab Liberation Army, supporting the Palestinian Arab Army of the Holy War, under the
leadership of Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni and Hasan Salama.
On
the
Jewish
side,
the
civil
war
was
managed
by
the
major
underground
militias
–
the Haganah, Irgun and Lehi, strengthened by numerous Jewish veterans of World War II and foreign
volunteers. By spring 1948, it was already clear that the Arab forces were nearing a total collapse, while
Yishuv forces gained more and more territory, creating a large scale refugee problem of Palestinian
Arabs. Popular support for the Palestinian Arabs throughout the Arab world led to sporadic violence against
Jewish communities of Middle East and North Africa, creating an opposite refugee wave.
In 1967, Israel conquered still more land. Following the “Six Day War,” in which Israeli forces launched a
highly successful surprise attack on Egypt, Israel occupied the final 22% of Palestine that had eluded it, the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, in 1948. Since, according to international law it is inadmissible to acquire territory
by war, these are occupied territories and do not belong to Israel. It also occupied parts of Egypt (since
returned) and Syria (which remain under occupation). Also during the Six Day War, Israel attacked a US
Navy ship, the USS Liberty, killing and injuring over 200 American servicemen. President Lyndon Johnson
recalled rescue flights, saying that he did not want to “embarrass an ally.” In 2004 a high-level commission
chaired by Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, found this attack to be “an
act of war against the United States,” a fact few news media have reported.
There are two primary issues at the core of this continuing conflict. First, there is the inevitably destabilizing
effect of trying to maintain an ethnically preferential state, particularly when it is largely of foreign origin. The
original population of what is now Israel was 96 percent Muslim and Christian, yet, these refugees are
prohibited from returning to their homes in the self-described Jewish state (and those within Israel are
subjected to systematic discrimination).
Second, Israel’s continued military occupation and confiscation of privately owned land in the West Bank,
and control over Gaza, are extremely oppressive, with Palestinians having minimal control over their lives.
Thousands of Palestinian men, women and children are held in Israeli prisons. Few of them have had a
legitimate trial; physical abuse and torture are frequent. Palestinian borders, even internal ones, are
controlled by Israeli forces. Periodically men, women, and children are strip searched; people are beaten;
women in labor are prevented from reaching hospitals (at times resulting in death); food and medicine are
blocked from entering Gaza, producing an escalating humanitarian crisis. Israeli forces invade almost daily,
injuring, kidnapping, and sometimes killing inhabitants.
According to the Oslo peace accords of 1993, these territories were supposed to finally become a
Palestinian state. However, after years of Israel continuing to confiscate land and conditions steadily
worsening, the Palestinian population rebelled. This uprising, called the “Intifada” (Arabic for “shaking off”)
began at the end of September 2000.
Largely due to special-interest lobbying, U.S. taxpayers give Israel an average of $8 million per day, and
since its creation have given more U.S. funds to Israel than to any other nation. As Americans learn about
how Israel is using our tax dollars, many are calling for an end to this expenditure. It is not possible to
understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without understanding its context.
II. Defusing tension in South Sudan
Sudan was born in 1956 when it won independence from Anglo-Egyptian joint rule, creating a country that
was the largest in Africa and also divided between a largely Muslim north, and a Christian and animist south.
Conflict between government forces and southern rebel groups, rooted in divisions over how the new state
should be organized, broke out soon after.
In 2005, after two civil wars in which more than 2.5 million people died, an agreement was reached for a
permanent ceasefire, a joint government, more autonomy for the South, and the guarantee of an
independence referendum in 2011. When that referendum was held, 99 per cent of South Sudanese voters
chose independence, and the Republic of South Sudan was officially born in July of that year.
But the seeds of another conflict had been
planted during the struggle for South Sudan's
independence.
The
South
Sudanese
accused
the
Sudan
government of arming various ethnic groups to
sow discord, particularly between the Dinka and
Nuer.
Historical enmity between the two over resources
such as land and water turned into a full-out war
after the firing in July 2013 of vice president Riek
Machar, a Nuer, by president Salva Kiir, a Dinka.
This set off a conflict that, while couched in ethnic
terms, was in fact mostly political, according to
BBC analysis. Support for Kiir and Machar was
not restricted to their respective ethnic groups,
and fighting often raged around control of oil,
which accounts for 98 percent of South Sudan's
budget.
"What began as a political conflict between elites
that exploited tribal tensions has evolved in the
past 10 months into a zero-sum struggle where
the exclusion of competing tribal groups from political power has become a principal aim of many
protagonists," said a UN Panel of Experts on South Sudan in a January 2016 letter.
Of the estimated 1.8 million people who remain displaced from their homes today, 1.35 million are within
South Sudan and 453,600 have fled to neighboring countries. Nearly 100,000 civilians are currently
sheltering on U.N. bases around the country as South Sudan. Efforts to combat famine have been
successful through the end of the year, but humanitarians warn that this requires a Herculean effort.
Continuing to sustain that level of response may not be possible if the violence continues.
The conditions in Bentiu, the capital of oil-rich Unity state, represent a particularly appalling situation.
Families are living knee-deep in water and fighting continues to threaten their safety. Women and girls are at
risk of sexual violence, given cramped conditions and the breakdown in social and cultural norms as a result
of the violence.
There was a short-lived ceasefire in 2014,
to allow for peace talks held in neighboring
Ethiopia. In August 2015, Kiir, pressured by
a threat of UN sanctions, signed a peace
deal allowing Machar to return to South
Sudan as the vice president in a unity
government. This finally happened in April
2016, but Machar was replaced in July as
the head of his faction, and sacked from the
vice presidency. Hundreds have been killed
since, with both sides accused of human
rights violations. The United Nations says in
its report that those crimes are sanctioned
by leaders.
"There is clear and convincing evidence ...
that most of the acts of violence committed
during the war by the Government or by
government-affiliated forces, including the
targeting of civilians and violations of
international
humanitarian
law
and
international human rights law, have been
directed
by
or
undertaken
with
the
knowledge of senior individuals at the
highest levels of the Government," the UN
experts wrote. The same is true for the
opposition, they added.
On the ground, meanwhile, confusion reigns
as to who might do anything to stop the
bloodshed. The UN maintains a sizeable
multinational contingent headquartered in
Juba, with more than 10,000 soldiers,
currently commanded by an Ethiopian general.
Hundreds of people were killed in South Sudan during an outbreak of violence last July and more than 200
people were raped, according to a United Nations report which emphasizes the need for accountability and
justice for those human rights violations.
The report by the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and the UN human rights office (OHCHR) found
that throughout the fighting that occurred between 8 and 12 July 2016 between the Sudan People's
Liberation Army (SPLA) and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Army in Opposition (SPLM/A-IO), “the
belligerents blatantly ignored international human rights law and humanitarian law.”
“The fighting that erupted in July 2016 was a serious setback for peace in South Sudan and showed just how
volatile the situation in the country is, with civilians living under the risk of mass atrocities,” said the UN High
Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein.
The report his office co-authored found that SPLA and SPLM/A-IO showed “complete disregard of civilians”
continuing to target women and children, and in particular, Nuers with tribal markings on their foreheads,
after 12 July, and that six months later, “there remains widespread impunity, as violations continue
unabated.”
“Information documented and verified by the Human Rights Division suggests that hundreds of people
including civilians were killed and many more wounded during the fighting in various areas of Juba,” the
report stated.
“UNMISS documented 217 victims of rape, including gang-rape committed by SPLA, SPLM/A-IO and other
armed groups during and after the fighting between 8 and 25 July.
According to victims' testimonies and witnesses' accounts, most cases of sexual violence were committed by
SPLA soldiers, police officers and members of the National Security Services (NSS).”
UNMISS and OHCHR urge the Transitional Government of National Unity to “break the cycle of violence and
impunity,” including through the establishment and operationalization of the Hybrid Court for South Sudan by
the African Union.
The report also recommends that the State ensure that all victims of human rights violations and abuses, as
well as violations of international humanitarian law, have access to an effective remedy, just and fair
reparation, including compensation and rehabilitation.
In August of last year, Zainab Hawa Bangura, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for
Sexual Violence in Conflict, urged the South Sudanese Government to protect its citizens.
“The women and children of South Sudan do not deserve [to be treated like] this,” Ms. Bangura told UN
Radio Miraya. “Those who think they will get off 'scot-free' must be joking because we will go after them. It
doesn't matter who they are or where they are. We will go after them and hold them accountable for these
crimes.”
The raid, on July 11, came after days of clashes in Juba between the two sides. According to Human Rights
Watch, civilians were targeted too, and rape and looting were commonplace — most, according to the
watchdog group, by government troops.
The conflict has claimed the lives of more than 50,000 people since December 2013, according to a UN
official, left more than 2.5 million displaced, and made it difficult for half the population to find food.
The civil war in South Sudan is flaring up again, and the security situation in the country is becoming more
dire by the day. Reports are surfacing of increasing brutality against civilians caught between the
government and opposition fighters, who are divided largely along ethnic lines.
In July 2017, troops loyal to President Salva Kiir raided a compound housing foreign aid workers in the
capital Juba. They beat and raped residents and killed a local journalist, all while United Nations
peacekeepers less than a mile away did nothing even after being called to help. That's according to a chilling
report from the Associated Press.
At a glance, the conflict would seem to be a war between the two biggest ethnic groups in South Sudan, the
Dinka and the Nuer. The journalist killed in the compound raid, for example, was shot immediately after
being identified as a Nuer by Dinka soldiers.
And, indeed, a United Nations report says that "tribal fissures" are "deepening" in South Sudan; the army,
military intelligence, and other security organs are "increasingly dominated by members of the Dinka tribe."
But the civil war has its roots in a conflict that began decades ago and touches on control of land and natural
resources, including a vast oil wealth. When South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011, it got
most of the oil fields, while Sudan controlled the means of exporting the oil, setting the stage for a war that
has often focused on oil-producing areas.
On August 27 2015 the leaders of the world’s youngest country signed an Agreement designed to bring to an
end its devastating civil war. At independence in 2011, hopes were high that South Sudan’s oil wealth would
help provide the development its citizens had been denied by 30 years of conflict. Instead, fewer than three
years later, mismanagement and looting of this resource stoked the acute grievances which led the country
back to war.
The Peace Agreement recognises that for there to be a sustainable peace in the country, the Transitional
Government must fundamentally overhaul the way the state is run— including, critically, how oil dollars are
collected, accounted for and spent. The Peace Agreement is a 30 month reform program which seeks to
create a transparent and accountable South Sudanese state by 2018. The Agreement is ambitious and
broad with 28 different provisions relating to oil management alone.
III. The situation in Mali
The landlocked West African country of Mali experienced rapid economic growth after the 1990s, coupled
with a flourishing democracy and relative social stability.
After independence from France in 1960, Mali suffered droughts, rebellions, a coup and 23 years of military
dictatorship until democratic elections in 1992.
In 2013, France intervened militarily upon the government's request following the capture of the town of
Konna and its troops overran Islamist strongholds.
The north remains tense, however, with both Tuareg separatists and Islamists sporadically active.
Mali is self-sufficient in food and is also one of Africa's major cotton producers. A chronic foreign trade deficit
makes it nonetheless heavily dependent on foreign aid and remittances from Malians working abroad.
The human rights climate in Mali worsened as a result of a significant increase in violence and a marked
deterioration in security, notwithstanding last June the signing of a peace agreement envisioned to end the
military and political crisis in the north. Attacks and violence progressively spread from the north into several
southern regions and the capital, Bamako.
Throughout the year there were frequent incidents of banditry and rampant criminality; clashes between
armed groups; and deadly attacks by armed Islamist groups on United Nations peacekeepers, Malian
government forces, and to a lesser extent, civilians. The violence severely undermined the delivery of
humanitarian aid. Government forces responded to the attacks with military operations that on several
occasions resulted in arbitrary arrests, executions, torture, and other mistreatment.
Malian authorities made scant effort to investigate and hold accountable those implicated in serious abuses
committed during the 2012-2013 armed conflict. The release in 2015 of some 70 men from detention,
including some implicated in serious violations, raised concern of a de facto amnesty.
Rule of law institutions countrywide were weak, in part due to unprofessional practices, such as the
solicitation of bribes, and inadequate budgetary allocations for the criminal justice system. Corruption,
endemic at all levels of government, further impeded Malians’ access to basic health care and education.
There was little progress in security sector and justice reform or in addressing development challenges, such
as the delivery of basic healthcare and education.
Concerns about the deteriorating security situation and the movement, caused by armed groups allegedly
linked to Al Qaeda, generated sustained diplomatic interest in Mali. The French government played a key
role in military matters, the European Union (EU) on training and security sector reform, and the UN, through
the Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), on rule of law and political stability.
Throughout 2015, armed groups linked to Al-Qaeda, along with opposing ethnic Tuareg and Arab groups,
engaged in numerous clashes and attacks on Malian soldiers and neutral peacekeepers, and to a lesser
extent, on aid workers and other civilians. Many civilians were wounded or killed either in these attacks or by
landmines and improvised explosive devices on major roads. Groups arbitrarily detained and often
mistreated combatants from opposing sides.
The attacks by Islamist armed groups increased in the north and spread into central and southern Mali.
Attacks occurred in Mopti, Segou, Sikasso, and Koulikoro regions as well as Bamako, where Islamist
assailants killed in March five people in an attack on a nightclub, and at least 18, including many foreigners,
during an attack in November on an upscale hotel. An attack in August on a hotel in the army garrison town
of Sevare, in central Mali, killed five civilians including four UN contractors. These groups executed at least
13 civilians accused of being informants for the government, the majority in central Mali.
In 2015, there were at least 30 attacks by armed men on humanitarian agencies, hampering their efforts to
deliver aid. In March, a driver with the International Committee of the Red Cross was killed when their clearly
marked truck was ambushed by an Islamist armed group.
At least 10 UN peacekeepers were killed in 2015 after being deliberately targeted by Islamist armed groups,
bringing the number to 42 killed since MINUSMA’s creation in 2013. Armed groups took responsibility for
many of these attacks, including an attack in July that killed six peacekeepers from Burkina Faso.
Government forces committed numerous violations against suspected supporters and members of Islamist
armed groups. Violations included arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and extrajudicial
execution. The most frequent and serious abuse was meted out by army soldiers and members of the progovernment militia Groupe Autodéfense Touareg Imghad et Alliés (GATIA), largely targeting men from the
Peuhl and Tuareg ethnic groups. In May, GATIA militiamen allegedly executed six Tuareg men including a
humanitarian worker in the northern village of Tin Hamma.
The abuse usually stopped after detainees were handed over to government gendarmes, who increasingly
fulfilled their mandated role as provost marshal.
The government made little progress in holding to account those from all warring factions responsible for
law-of-war violations committed during the 2012-2013 armed conflict. With few exceptions, judicial authorities
failed to investigate over 100 complaints filed by victims and family members. Moreover, the 2012 torture and
enforced disappearance of 21 elite “Red Berets,” which in 2013 and 2014 resulted in charges against some
25 soldiers, including former coup leader Gen. Amadou Haya Sanogo, had failed to move past the
investigations phase.
During 2015, the authorities freed at least 74 detainees, including several allegedly implicated in serious
international crimes during the 2012-2013 armed conflict. The releases, characterized by the government as
a “confidence-building measure” in the context of negotiations, were carried out without regard to whether
the men might have been responsible for serious crimes. The peace accord lacked provisions to address
impunity and the need for justice for serious crimes committed by all sides during the conflict.
On September 18, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued its first arrest warrant in the context of its
Mali investigation. On September 26, Ahmad Al Mahdi Al Faqi was surrendered to the ICC from Niger after
being charged with the destruction of historical monuments, the first case of its kind before the ICC. In July
2012, Mali, a state party to the ICC, referred “the situation in Mali since January 2012” to the ICC prosecutor
for investigation.
In 2014, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta
established
the
Truth,
Justice
and
Reconciliation Commission by executive
order. The Commission will have a three
year mandate, covering the period from
1960 to 2013. It is to consist of 15
members and seven working groups. It will
function under the Ministry of National
Reconciliation and Development of the
North.
In
August,
the
government
appointed Ousmane Oumarou Sidibé as
Chair of the Commission; however, his
appointment and the credibility of the body
were limited due to the government’s failure to consult sufficiently with a wide variety of stakeholders on the
Commission’s membership, mandate powers, and degree of independence.
During 2015, there was some progress in ensuring access to justice for residents of the northern Timbuktu,
Gao, and Kidal regions, demonstrated by the continued rehabilitation of local courthouses and jails and the
redeployment of prosecutors, judges, and judicial police who had fled during the armed conflict. Their ability
to conduct investigations outside major towns was limited by the precarious security situation. Some judicial
and corrections personnel fled their posts in central Mali after attacks by armed groups.
Neglect and mismanagement within the Malian judiciary countrywide led to striking deficiencies, including
insufficient staffing and logistical constraints. These shortfalls hindered efforts to address impunity for
perpetrators of all crimes, contributed to violations of the right to due process, and led to incidents of vigilante
justice. For example, in March, two children suspected of planting an explosive device near a police station
in Gao were beaten to death by a mob.
Due to the courts’ inability to adequately process cases, hundreds of detainees are held in extended pre-trial
detention in overcrowded jails and detention centers.
Sitography
Security Council
United Nations
http://www.un.org/en/sc/
I. The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
The Huffington Post
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alon-benmeir/the-israeli-palestinian-c_b_13333172.html
Vox
http://www.vox.com/cards/israel-palestine
Jewish Voice for Peace
https://jewishvoiceforpeace.org/israeli-palestinian-conflict-101/
II. Defusing tension in South Sudan
The New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/29/world/africa/29sudan.html
Africa – News and Analisys
https://africajournalismtheworld.com/tag/sudan-south-sudan-conflict/
Voa News
http://www.voanews.com/a/south-sudan-security-human-rights-obasanjo-ethnic-conflict/2463849.html
News Week
http://europe.newsweek.com/renewed-fighting-south-sudan-civil-war-479219?rm=eu
Office of the High Commissioner – United Nations Humar Rights
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20757&LangID=E
CNN
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/12/15/opinions/south-sudan-genocide-looming/
III. The situation in Mali
UN News Center
http://www.un.org/apps/news/infocusRel.asp?infocusID=150
Security Council Report
http://www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2016-01/mali_20.php
International Criminal Court
https://www.icc-cpi.int/itemsDocuments/SASMaliArticle53_1PublicReportENG16Jan2013.pdf
Relif Web
http://reliefweb.int/report/mali/report-secretary-general-situation-mali-s2016819
Geneva Centre for Security Policy
http://www.gcsp.ch/Events/The-situation-in-Mali-and-in-the-Sahel-What-are-the-options-for-a-sustainableexit-from-the-crisis
The Brocker
http://www.thebrokeronline.eu/Articles/Sahel-Watch-a-living-analysis-of-the-conflict-in-Mali