OUVRAGE : B.G. Ramcharan, United Nations Protection of Humanity and Its Habitat: A New International Law of Security and Protection

Bertrand G. RAMCHARAN

This book is a study of the future of international law as well as the future of the United Nations. It is the first study ever bringing together the laws, policies and practices of the UN for the protection of the earth, the oceans, outer space, human rights, victims of armed conflicts and of humanitarian emergencies, the poor, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged world-wide. It reviews unprecedented dangers and challenges facing humanity such as climate change and weapons of mass destruction, and argues that the international law of the future must become an international law of security and of protection. It submits that the concept of international security in the UN Charter can no longer be restricted to situations of armed conflict but must be given its natural meaning: whatever threatens the security of humanity. It calls for the Security Council to perform its role as the guardian of the security of humankind and sees a leadership role for the UN Secretary-General in analysing and presenting challenges of international security and protection to the Security Council for its attention.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword, Rev. Dwain Epps
Preface, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: Human Protection and the United Nations in the Twenty-First Century (Cyril Foster Lecture, Oxford University)
Introduction: An Assessment of UN Protection

1. Protection of Children, Women, the Poor, the Vulnerable and the Disadvantaged
2. Law-Making, Judicial and Quasi-Judicial Standards of Protection
3. Threats and Challenges
4. Urgent Measures of Protection
5. Protection of the Earth and the Environment
6. Protection of the Oceans and the Polar Regions
7. Protection of Outer Space
8. Protection against Weapons of Mass Destruction
9. Protection Against Terrorism and Violent Extremism
10. Protection During Armed Conflicts and Humanitarian Emergencies
11. Protection of Human Rights
12. Protection by the UN Security Council

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Bertrand G. RAMCHARAN, United Nations Protection of Humanity and Its Habitat: A New International Law of Security and Protection, Leiden, Nijhoff/Brill, 2016 (278 pp.)

Bertrand G. Ramcharan is President Emeritus of UPR Info. Previously, he was: Chancellor of the University of Guyana; Professor of Human Rights at the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies; Deputy, then Acting UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Commissioner of the International Commission of Jurists; Member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration; Special Adviser of the UN Secretary-General on the peace process in Georgia; Fellow of the LSE; UN Fellow at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.