At Opening UN Ceremonies, Foreign Ministers Challenged Concept of Unlimited Sovereignty

Four Foreign Ministers, addressing the UN General Assembly in Sept. 1991 called for limiting the concept of sovereignty.

Barbara McDougall of Canada declared, "The concept of sovereignty must respect higher principles, including the need to preserve human life from wanton destruction."

"Today Sovereignty must meet its limits in the responsibility of states for mankind as a whole and for the survival of Creation," said Hans-Dietrich Genscher of Germany. "When human rights are trampled under foot, the family of nations is not confined to the role of spectator . . . It must intervene."

In a bold speech, Gianni de Mechelis of Italy suggested revising parts of the UN Charter in order to accommodate " the right to intervene" in internal affairs of states "for humanitarian ends and the protection of human rights." The international community "must have the power to suspend sovereignty whenever it is exercised in a criminal manner. The international community must be on the side both of democratically elected parliaments and oppressed nationalities."

Boris Pankin, who at that time was Soviet Foreign Minister, called for developing the sovereignty principle in international law to meet new realities and risks and the need for universal interaction among states. He advocates harmonizing national, regional and global interests by asserting a single universal scale of democratic values providing, among others, for supremacy of international law and human rights.

John O. Sutter