(a) "Preamble of the UN Charter is representative of the aspirations of humanity in ensuring peace and security across the globe." How far have these objectives been achieved by the UN? Explain and elucidate. 20

(b) "Reservation in multilateral trea

Question

(a) "Preamble of the UN Charter is representative of the aspirations of humanity in ensuring peace and security across the globe." How far have these objectives been achieved by the UN? Explain and elucidate. 20

(b) "Reservation in multilateral treaty excludes or modifies the legal effect of certain provisions of a treaty in its application to that State." Explain the circumstances under which reservations in treaties are permissible under International Law. 15

(c) Under what circumstances is recourse to 'force' or 'aggression' permissible and justifiable under International Law ? 15

UPSC Answer Check · Accepted Answer

The Preamble, read with Article 1(2), frames the UN’s core aspirations: saving generations from war, ensuring international security, promoting human rights, and supporting self-determination. Its achievement is mixed. The UN has helped end colonial empires, built a human-rights system, and conducted peacekeeping operations such as UNFICYP and UNDOF, which reduced interstate violence and gave diplomacy space. India’s sustained participation in peacekeeping reflects this utility. The Preamble’s human-rights aspiration is visible in the Universal Declaration and the two international covenants, while self-determination became a General Assembly principle during decolonization. Yet the Charter’s central promise remains constrained by the Security Council’s 1945 structure. Veto abuse in Syria and Ukraine, paralysis over mass atrocities, and Cold War proxy conflicts show that collective security is selective. The G4 (Germany, Japan, Brazil, India) proposal to expand the Council and India’s claim for permanent membership address this mismatch, but reform is difficult because the existing permanent members control the veto. The Responsibility to Protect doctrine, adopted in 2005, has been limited by inconsistent application, sovereignty objections and veto politics.

Permissible reservations in multilateral treaties
Under the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, 1969, a reservation is a unilateral statement, however formulated, made when signing, ratifying or acceding, by which a State seeks to exclude or modify the legal effect of certain provisions in its application to that State. Articles 19–23 make reservations permissible unless the treaty prohibits them, allows only specified reservations, or the reservation is incompatible with the treaty’s object and purpose. The ICJ’s 1951 advisory opinion on Reservations to the Genocide Convention established this object-and-purpose test and rejected the idea that every State must accept every reservation. The 1996 Legality of Use of Nuclear Weapons opinion, though not a reservations case, illustrates the Court’s interpretive method: treaty and Charter obligations are read in context, with customary law and peremptory norms. Reservations derogating from jus cogens are impermissible, as Articles 53 and 64 make peremptory norms non-derogable and void or terminate conflicting treaties. In practice, an objecting State may object within twelve months; if none, the reservation is deemed accepted. If it does, the reserving and objecting States may decide whether treaty relations exist, while the reserving State remains bound vis-à-vis accepting States.

Force, aggression and justifiable exceptions
Article 2(4) prohibits the threat or use of force against territorial integrity or political independence. “Aggression” is a distinct and graver concept: UNGA Resolution 3314 (1974) defines it as invasion, attack, bombardment, blockade, allowing one’s territory to be used for hostile acts, or sending armed bands; the Nuremberg principles treated it as a crime against peace, and the ICC’s Rome Statute now criminalizes it for individuals. Aggression is not a lawful recourse; it is criminal. The principal Charter exceptions are self-defence under Article 51, individual or collective, until the Security Council acts, and Chapter VII, especially Article 42, where the Council authorizes enforcement action. Humanitarian intervention remains debated; it is not a clear right and is usually framed through R2P rather than unilateral force. In Nicaragua v. United States (1986), the ICJ held that an “armed attack” requires substantial force, not merely support to insurgents; in Oil Platforms (2003), it stressed necessity and proportionality. Contemporary issues—pre-emptive or anticipatory self-defence, as in the 2003 Iraq war, cyber warfare, and drone strikes—remain contested; the Caroline test of imminent necessity is not uniformly accepted, and cyber/drone cases raise attribution, threshold and proportionality problems.

Thus, the Charter’s objectives remain a normative compass, but require Security Council reform, disciplined treaty practice, and strict adherence to the prohibition on force, with aggression treated as criminal.

(a) "Preamble of the UN Charter is representative of the aspirations of humanity in ensuring peace and security across the…

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