REGIME AND ACCOUNTABILITY by
HANS-C VON
SPONECK
UN Assistant Secretary-General (ret.)
t
here is no reference to “regime change” in the books of the United Nations, nor is there a norm of this kind in any international law.
Regime change is a term in the western dictionary of international relations. It is associated with a derogatory reference to national authorities not acceptable to certain western governments, especially to the United States. References to regime change carry with it the connotations of (i) conquest by a foreign power, (ii) External
assistance to carry out a revolution and (iii) Promoting coup d’ états. As history confirms, regime changes have never led to ending international conflicts. On the contrary, wherever regime changes have been attempted from outside, they intensified conflicts. The victims of such externally induced political changes have invariably been innocent civilians. While examples from various parts of the world could be cited (e.g., Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Syria, Yemen and Ukraine) this presentation has selected two instances of regime change policies introduced by the Unites States, as the main supporter of regime change in Iraq and Libya.
Example 1: Iraq The US Congress and the President of the United States, Bill Clinton in October 1998 approved the so-called ‘Iraq Liberation Act’.1 Section 7 of the Act states: “…it should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein.”
The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998, (H.R.4655) was approved by the US Congress and signed into law on 31 October 1998 by the President of the United States 1
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