A/79/182 13. Peace is therefore not only negative but also positive: negative in the sense of an absence of direct violence, but positive in the sense of being much more expansive and including a lack of indirect or structural violence. 12 14. As definitions of peace have expanded, so have those of security 13 and sovereignty. 14 Essentially, it has been concretized and reiterated in a number of reports that the primary raison d’être and duty of States, and the reason for their sovereignty, is to protect their populations. 15 These broader understandings have also been reflected in how the Security Council sees its own role in maintaining international peace and security through advancing accountability and justice. 15. Despite its expansion over the decades, the role of the Security Council in upholding human rights is still “conceived narrowly” insofar as it includes “gross and systematic violations of physical integrity rights rising to the level of mass atrocity crimes – genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. It is only where international security and human rights intersect that the latter succeeds in penetrating the agenda of the Council”. 16 In short, there have to be serious “physical integrity rights violations” 17 at play. Since 1992, Council resolutions have increasingly included references to the situation of members of minority communities, as well as to human rights violations, by both Governments and non-State armed groups, including in the name of religion. 18 16. The Security Council has advanced its human rights role by establishing commissions of inquiry, creating international courts and tribunals and referring cases to them, using military force for the purposes of humanitarian and human rights protection, and integrating human rights in peace operations. 19 17. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) concept of “comprehensive security” offers a broader understanding of security, encompassing three complementary dimensions: politico-military, economic and environmental, and human, with each dimension considered as being of “equal importance”. 20 This model is understood to be “comprehensive, cooperative, equal, indivisible and grounded in human rights”. Sustainable Development Goal 16 is also broad in its call on States to “[p]romote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, p rovide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels”. __________________ 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 24-13239 Johan Galtung, “Violence, peace and peace research”, Journal of Peace Research, vol. 6, No. 3 (1969), note 31. This will be discussed further below. The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2001). Available at https://idrc-crdi.ca/en/book/responsibility-protect-reportinternational-commission-intervention-and-state-sovereignty. A/59/2005, para. 135. Carrie Booth Walling, “The United Nations Security Council and human rights”, Global Governance, vol. 26, No. 2 (2020), p. 293 Susan Hannah Allen and Sam R. Bell, “The United Nations Security Council and human rights: who ends up in the spotlight?”, Journal of Global Security Studies, vol. 7, No. 4 (December 2022), p. 12. Nazila Ghanea and Michael Wiener, “Freedoms of thought, conscience, religion or belief at 75” in Shaping a World of Freedoms: 75 Years of Legacy and Impact of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (New York, 2023), p. 9. Available at https://unequal.world/wpcontent/uploads/2023/12/Shaping-a-World-of-Freedoms-75-Years-of-Legacy-and-Impact-of-theUniversal-Declaration-of-Human-Rights.pdf. See also Mark Klamberg and others, “Tempering the Security Council’s expanded perception of threats to the peace”, Nordic Journal of International Law, vol. 93, No. 2 (June 2024). Walling, “The United Nations Security Council and Human Rights”, pp. 294–299 OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, Freedom of Religion or Belief and Security: Policy Guidance (Warsaw, 2019), p. 9. 5/22