Thesis presented and publicly defended with a view to obtaining the title of Doctor of International Relations.

By

BASHIMBE BUGONDO Ali
Graduate of higher education in International Relations Bachelor of Laws
Works Manager

Option: International Law

JURY:
A. Full members
1. Professor Auguste MAMPUYA KANUNK'a-TSHIABO: President
2. Professor Patience KAMANDA LONDO: Secretary
3. Professor Léon Bruno LIKOKU BEKODJ' AOLUW A: Promoter
4. Professor Julien MAHATMA TAZI K.Tien-a-be: Co-Promoter
5. Professor Etienne NGOIE MBA YO: Full member
B. Alternate members
1. Professor Boniface KABANDA MATANDA
2. Professor Laurent NGILA MOKE

March 2023

SUMMARY OF THE THESIS

This thesis is an attempt to reflect on the actions of the United Nations in the repression of international crimes. It questions the reasons that could justify a possible accountability of the Security Council in the event of its own failure to fulfill its primary mission of maintaining international peace and security, through the repression of international crimes. It is based on the principle that this responsibility would be based on the Charter of the United Nations, which confers on it the primary mission of maintaining international peace and security.

The blockage of the Security Council in the context of the repression of international crimes can have serious consequences for human rights. To clarify our concerns, our study allowed us to take stock of the functioning of this body and the difficulties that arise in this context, in particular, with regard to the adoption of decisions in certain important areas.

Since the blockage of this body in the field of human rights is intolerable, and no solution has been envisaged to date from the point of view of international law, an attempt to find a form of political solution to compensate for this deficiency has proved necessary.

To resolve this difficulty, we felt it was important to recall Resolution 377(V), which was adopted to circumvent the blockage within the meaning of the UN Security Council. But since this resolution, after its application in certain cases, including those of Korea and Congo, has remained unrequested for several decades, even when blockages occurred on important issues such as in Syria, we felt it was important to propose some corrections to the system in force to adapt it to the current world and so that it can serve to resolve the equation posed by the blockages occurring within the Security Council.

In this regard, the replacement by the revitalization of resolution 377(V) seems to us to be the most effective political sanction against the Security Council when it fails to decide to put an end to serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.

It is also clear that a body as powerful as the Security Council should be controlled in the exercise of its powers in relation to the suppression of the most serious international crimes. At the 3046th meeting of the United Nations Security Council, held on 31 January 1992, the Secretary-General stated that "democratization at the national level required a corresponding process at the global level. At both levels, it tended towards the rule of law."³ This approach of the then Secretary-General of the United Nations seems interesting to us. The democratization of the United Nations Organization presupposes the transposition of the internal democratic mechanisms of the functioning of the institutions with, of course, necessary adjustments, adapted to this megastructure and to the realities specific to international society.

Internally, democratization presupposes separate and controlled powers. This issue, aside from being systematically developed in this thesis, is not at all new, and the literature on this subject is abundant. This study approaches it in a completely original manner.

It is indeed appropriate to understand to what extent the United Nations is based on a constitutional system comparable to state systems and requiring, in this case, control articulated in checks and balances. This is the dimension of what should be called the constitutional law of the United Nations that has been explored here.

The essence of this thesis lies in the assertion that, even if its competences are in the field of international peace and security, the irruption of the Security Council in the repression of international crimes is not only necessary, but also socially beneficial. Because of the links between peace and respect for human rights, the intervention of the Security Council in the fight against impunity for serious crimes is not carried out "out of area" but rather, at the right time.

Furthermore, this research has been an opportunity to demonstrate that if the intervention of the United Nations Security Council in the field of international repressive justice is necessary and advisable, however, the chances of seeing it act effectively in this field are slim, with the exception of a few minority cases of the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Libya and Sudan; because, in the current state of the organization of the Security Council, it can be blocked while international peace and security are threatened by the commission of international crimes.

Hence the call for the establishment of a kind of responsibility for this body which, in the event of a serious blockage, would consist of its replacement by the General Assembly of the United Nations.

Keywords : Security Council, Repression, International Crimes, Responsibility, Blockage, Veto, International Tribunals and International Criminal Court