Abstract
"The Security Council shall determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what measures shall be taken in accordance with Articles 41 and 42, to maintain or restore international peace and security". Based on this article of the United Nation charter, the Security Council has increasingly defined gross human rights abuses as threats to international peace and security throughout the 1990's. According to international Law, all States are sovereign. This means that they control their territory and their population and that no other nation should intervene in its internal affairs. However, under the 1948 Genocide Convention, adopted by the United Nation General Assembly, sovereignty is not a barrier to intervention. The first article states that "The Contracting Parties confirm that genocide, whether committed in time of peace or in time of war, is a crime under international law which they undertake to prevent and to punish".
