UNSCR 2417 (2018)

United Nations Security Council Resolution 2417 (2018) is a thematic resolution on armed conflict, food insecurity and famine. Adopted unanimously on 24 May 2018, it condemns starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and the unlawful denial of humanitarian access. It has no sunset, but it does not itself designate a person, impose an embargo or create an automatic sanctions regime.

Content

The resolution recalls the protection of civilians and objects indispensable to their survival under international humanitarian law. It calls on parties to comply with obligations concerning humanitarian relief and condemns attacks on objects such as food stocks, crops, livestock, drinking-water installations and irrigation works. Those propositions draw on existing law, including Additional Protocol I Article 54 (1977). The resolution does not independently create a new universal criminal offence or jurisdiction.

Resolution 2417 requests the Secretary-General to report swiftly when the risk of conflict-induced famine and widespread food insecurity occurs in armed-conflict contexts. It also expresses the Council's readiness to consider appropriate steps, including sanctions measures where consistent with existing practice. A later country designation still requires a separate Council decision and applicable listing criteria.

Use and boundary

The reporting channel has supported Council briefings and country-specific attention. Its procedural value lies in bringing food-security indicators into peace-and-security deliberation before a famine declaration. The Council still has to assess the facts, legal character and response in each situation.

Editors should separate four questions: whether starvation is used as a method of warfare, whether humanitarian access is unlawfully denied, whether existing sanctions include a humanitarian exception, and whether the Council has adopted country-specific measures. Civilian food insecurity alone does not answer all four. The resolution is therefore a central constraint in analysis of Food weaponisation (food security as leverage), but it is not a free-standing enforcement code. UNSCR 2664 (2022) addresses a different issue by establishing a humanitarian carve-out across specified United Nations asset-freeze regimes.

See also

Additional Protocol I Article 54 (1977) · Rome Statute Article 8(2)(b)(xxv) (1998) · Food weaponisation (food security as leverage) · UNSCR 2664 (2022)

Sources

1. United Nations Security Council, Resolution 2417 record, S/RES/2417 (24 May 2018).
2. United Nations Security Council, Resolution 2417 official text (24 May 2018).
3. United Nations Security Council, Adoption record SC/13354 (24 May 2018).
4. International Committee of the Red Cross, Additional Protocol I, Article 54 (8 June 1977).