Topic: 2026 – Clarification of Article 51
Country: Peru
Delegate Name: Sarah Abraham
Sarah Abraham
Peru
Clarification on Article 51
The Creation Of Article 51 For the United Nations Charter was Established as a right to protect one’s country if it was attacked by another to keep citizens out of danger and not be seen as a vulnerable state. If any state deliberately causes an armed attack against a member of the United Nations, they will have the right to secure their state and other members of the United Nations can come to the country’s aid until the United Nations calls for peace during the conflict. For the past few years, Article 51 has been abused from multiple states calling for strikes on countries and causing increases in conflict. A recent example of these events occurring was on September 9th 2025 when Israel’s forces planned and acted for an airstrike on Qatar that targeted Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement) causing innocent lives to be at risk and several citizens left dead or injured from the attack. This was said to be a defense on behalf of Israel so consequences could not be given for them , this should present how pre-emptive strikes to prevent an attack conflicts with Article 51’s policies because it was a defense from an assumed attack, but since the pre-emptive strike was not confirmed by the Security Council , situations like this should not be excused as a defense but seen as an attack.
Peru has very little input on Article 51 , from the Constitution Of 1993 , the Delegation Of Peru states that the Constitution overrules any laws that conflict with the Constitution and all latest laws should be published and made public for citizens to be aware of what regulations they are following. The delegation of Peru will put citizens of the country first before anything which is why Article 51 can bring up issues for the United Nations because of attacks negatively impacting all countries citizens. For Article 51 to improve , it should go into more depth on what is acceptable and what is not because of countries using its vagueness to justify attacks as defense. Article 51 should specify what counts as a legitimized armed attack and what should count as an act of self defense, if the article could specify more clearly it could improve how to determine what conflicts should be acceptable. An example of this is in Nicaragua v. the United States and Oil Platforms when the US claimed Nicaragua was planning an attack and it justified their actions which was later determined that the US had violated Article 51 and signifies how there needs to be limits addressed for armed attacks so that misunderstandings are less common.
The Delegation Of Peru believes that Article 51 should clarify how defense should take place to decrease mishaps from happening as commonly as it does right now which will benefit our people and the other delegates citizens from being on the risk of harm from countries using pre-emptive strikes which leads to many casualties and as countries it should be the top priority to keep our civilians safe more than anything. Any decision to use force on another country should also be approved by the Security Council to make sure the act was not violating what Article 51 stands for , this will help our countries stay out of conflict and move towards peace.
Works Cited
Annex — HLS PILAC Catalogue of Apparent “Article 51 Communications” — HLS PILAC. “HLS PILAC.” HLS PILAC , 16 July 2019, pilac.law.harvard.edu/quantum-of-silence-paper-and-annex/annex-hls-pilac-catalogue-of-apparent-article-51-communications. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.
Hindsight, In. “In Hindsight: The Increasing Use of Article 51 of the UN Charter and the Security Council.” Security Council Report, 2025, www.securitycouncilreport.org/monthly-forecast/2025-10/in-hindsight-the-increasing-use-of-article-51-of-the-un-charter-and-the-security-council.php.
Charter’s, UN. “Columbia Undergraduate Law Review.” Columbia Undergraduate Law Review, 8 Dec. 2025, www.culawreview.org/journal/applications-of-the-un-charters-article-51-the-use-of-self-defense-in-outer-space.
“Peru 1993 (Rev. 2021) Constitution – Constitute.” Www.constituteproject.org, www.constituteproject.org/constitution/Peru_2021.
