Professors Stephen Haines and Marcelo Kohen
On Monday at the Graduate Institute on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the start of the Falkand/Malvinas armed conflict, Professor Marcelo Kohen, of Argentinean nationality, debated the issue with Professor Stephen Haines of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, who is also a former UK naval officer.
Professor Kohen outlined his views in an article published on Project Syndicate. The first part of the article is below:
"In April 1982, the United Kingdom faced the imminent use of force by the Argentine junta in the Falkland Islands (Malvinas). When Sir Anthony Parsons, the UK representative to the United Nations, appeared before the Security Council to call for action, he did not do so “to discuss the rights or wrongs of the very longstanding issue between Great Britain and Argentina over the islands in the South Atlantic.” The British were requesting Security Council action for one reason: “to deter any threat of armed force.”
Parsons submitted a draft, which became Security Council Resolution 502, demanding the cessation of hostilities and the withdrawal of the Argentine forces, and calling on both governments “to seek a diplomatic solution to their differences.” The rest of the story is well known.
On June 14, 1982, the Argentine forces surrendered to the British Commander. The hostilities had ended, but the dispute over the Falklands’ sovereignty remained. Soon after the conflict, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution requesting that Argentina and the UK resume negotiations in order to find a peaceful solution to the sovereignty issue as quickly as possible. The British government, however, refused to talk."
Read the rest of this article written by Professor Marcelo Kohen on the Project Syndicate website.
Marcelo Kohen has been a Professor of International Law at the Graduate Institute since 1995 and is an associate member of the Institute of International Law. He has also worked as a counsel and advocate for a number of States before the International Court of Justice and has been visiting professor at several European Universities. He is the author of many publications in the field of international law, in English, French and Spanish. He is generally interested in research related to international law theory, territorial and border disputes as well as international dispute settlement. He was awarded the Paul Guggenheim Prize in 1997 for his book Possession contestée et souveraineté territoriale (Adverse Possession and Territorial Sovereignty).