Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the United Nations at the time
of the 2003 Iraq conflict, wrote:
"No principle of the Charter is more important than the
principle of the non-use of force as embodied in Article 2,
paragraph 4 .... Secretaries General confront many challenges in
the course of their tenures but the challenge that tests them and
defines them inevitably involves the use of
force."1
Article 2(4) of the UN Charter2 , which is accepted
universally, prohibits the use of force by countries. Article
2(4)3 of the UN Charter reads as under:
"Article 2(4)
All members shall refrain in their international relations
from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity
or political independence of any state, or in any other manner
inconsistent with the purposes of the United
Nations."
