Africa’s place in the UN system

The UN’s setbacks in Yugoslavia and Somalia have shown that the organisation is ill-suited to intervene in wars, which are essentially difficult in Rwanda, illustrating the organisation’s inability to prevent a real genocide. For this reason, some have suggested that the UN Charter should be amended to introduce a kind of humanitarian right of interference. Thus, a situation of genocide or infringement of minority rights could legitimately justify humanitarian interference. It is worth noting that in 1995 the Carlsson Commission proposed that the 1945 Charter be amended to allow the Security Council to intervene in intergovernmental crises in the event of a 'massive violation of human security'.