Designing the Human Right to Peace: The U.N. Perspective and Challenges for Democratic Nations

Abstract

The United Nations Charter’s purpose is to maintain international peace and security and ensure that armed force shall not be used except in the common interest. The Charter has one primary objective, i.e., to take appropriate measures to strengthen universal peace and prevent another war on a large scale. This is ensured by giving entry to only members who are peace-loving states and who accept the obligations contained in the Charter. For this purpose, the Charter has designed the Security Council so that any threat to peace, breach of peace, or act of aggression can be successfully contained. After the Charter, the United Nations introduced and advanced various declarations, conventions and committees, which raised the idea of peace and the right to peace into the mainstream of human rights. This article critically analyses the right to peace. It looks at the idea of peace being celebrated as an end in itself, within the national framework and the development of the Right to Peace as a Human Right. The paper concludes by emphasising on the relevance of democracy and constitutional framework within nation states.