Category: Global Disarmament | Strength: Strong
Committed to the pursuit of international peace and security among all World Assembly member states,
Seeking to establish criteria for just wars and to prohibit crimes against peace,
The General Assembly,
- Defines a "initiation of armed conflict", for the purposes of this resolution, as any of the following:
- a declaration of war against a state, or
- a blockade, invasion, or attack, whether by military or paramilitary forces, that breaches an existing peace, whether formal or informal, and that is targeted against another state or a violent non-state actor operating in another state;
- Recognizes as a crime against peace any initiation of armed conflict that:
- is not taken for the primary purpose of:
- individual or collective self-defense against the target state or against a non-state actor operating in the target state, including preemptive action in the face of imminent attack or severe threats to national security,
- halting widespread and repeated violations of international human rights law that are being committed by the target state or a non-state actor operating in the target state, or
- another just cause,
- violates international law or a treaty to which the member state is a party,
- is taken by a non-state actor,
- has no reasonable prospect of achieving its defined objectives,
- is taken prior to exhausting all reasonable alternatives to conflict, or
- has expected benefits that are grossly disproportionately smaller than the expected harms,
- is not taken for the primary purpose of:
- Declares that territorial acquisition or subjugation of foreign populations do not constitute a just cause for an initiation of armed conflict;
- Prohibits member states from committing crimes against peace;
- Requires member states to duly prosecute government officials and other individuals subject to their jurisdiction who bear responsibility for a state or non-state actor committing crimes against peace;
- Clarifies that nothing in this resolution should be interpreted as recognizing the following as crimes against peace, without prejudice to the right of the World Assembly to do so in future:
- purely domestic initiations of armed conflict, and
- initiations of armed conflict against a violent non-state actor with the consent of the state where the conflict occurs.