Humanitarian Intervention and Security Council Resolution 688: A Reappraisal in Light of a Changing World Order
![handle is hein.journals/amuilr7 and id is 891 raw text is: HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION AND SECURITY
COUNCIL RESOLUTION 688: A REAPPRAISAL IN
LIGHT OF A CHANGING WORLD ORDER
Judy A. Gallant*
INTRODUCTION
In the aftermath of the Gulf War Iraqi forces, utilizing tanks and
helicopter gunships, extinguished Kurdish insurrections in northern
Iraq and Shia Muslim uprisings in southern Iraq.' Approximately two
million Kurds fled the atrocities2 caused by the Iraqi suppression.3 The
United Nations Security Council, reacting with unparalleled speed and
effectiveness, adopted Resolution 688 on April 5, 1991,4 which created
the legal authority for other nations to intervene in Iraq for humanitar-
ian purposes.5 As a result of Resolution 688 the United States, Great
Britain, and France dispatched armed forces to create refugee areas for
displaced Kurds in northern Iraq within which humanitarian aid agen-
* J.D. Candidate, 1993, Washington College of Law, The American University.
With special thanks to Professor Domingo Acevedo.
1. Decades of Disaster: The United Nations' Response: Hearing Before the House
Select Committee on Hunger, 102d Cong., 1st Sess. 67 (1991) [hereinafter Int'l Law
Perspective] (testimony of Ved P. Nanda, Director, International Legal Studies Pro-
gram, U. of Denver College of Law, entitled A United Nations Convention on the
Right to Food, Humanitarian Intervention, and the U.N. Response to International
Disasters - An International Law Perspective).
2. See William Safire, Duty to Intervene, N.Y. TIMES, Apr. 15, 1991, at A17 (stat-
ing that the Kurds risked starvation and exposure to the cold while fleeing from certain
slaughter); The Law Learns from the Kurds, N.Y. TIbsEs, Apr. 14, 1991, at D18 (char-
acterizing Hussein's repression of his own people as bordering on genocide).
3. Int'l Law Perspective, supra note 1, at 67. See also David J. Scheffer, Use of
Force After the Cold War: Panama, Iraq. and the New World Order, in RiGHT v.
MIGHr: INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE USE OF FORCE 109, 144 (2d ed. 1991) [herein-
after RIGHT v. MIGHT] (noting that the Iraqi government drove two million Kurds and
Shiites into Turkey, Iran, and Southern Iraq).
4. U.N. Doc. S/RES/688, Apr. 5, 1991, reprinted in 30 I.L.M. 858 (1991)
(adopted ten to three, with Cuba, Yemen, and Zimbabwe against, and China and India
abstaining). See infra note 8 (providing the full text of the Resolution).
5. RIGHT V. MIGHT, supra note 3, at 145.](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/amuilr7&div=40&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Humanitarian Intervention and Security Council Resolution 688: A Reappraisal in Light of a Changing World Order
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