Grenada (1983)

In September 1983, following an internal power struggle within Grenada, Prime Minister Maurice Bishop and other cabinet members were put under house arrest and later executed by military forces, and a Revolutionary Military Council installed as the governing body. In response to these events, and a request from the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States, the US, supported by a coalition of Caribbean nations, invaded Grenada on 25 October 1983 and ousted the military regime.¹

Two days later, the US vetoed a draft SC resolution on Grenada that would have called for an immediate ceasefire and withdrawal of foreign troops (S/16077/Rev.1).² Nicaragua – in that session an elected member of the SC – requested that the matter be taken up in the GA’s 38th session, explicitly because action was blocked due to the “negative vote of one of its permanent members” (A/38/245, paras. 3, 5).³ Although this was not a situation where the UFP was formally referenced, it was a clear case of the GA taking up the case because action was blocked in the SC.

In its resolution 38/7 of 2 November 1983, adopted by 108 votes in favour, 9 against, and 27 abstentions (A/RES/38/7), the GA noted its grave concern for the “military intervention taking place”, and “deeply deplore[d] the armed intervention in Grenada”, arguing that it constituted a “flagrant violation of international law and of the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of that State” (ibid.). It called for the armed intervention’s “immediate cessation” and the “immediate withdrawal of the foreign troops from Grenada” – all provisions that had appeared in the vetoed draft SC resolution (ibid., para. 4). The resolution referenced Article 2(4) of the Charter and recalled all Member States’ obligation “to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State” (ibid.).

The US intervention in Grenada ended on 2 November 1983, the same day as the GA resolution. By mid-December, all US combat forces had withdrawn from Grenada, while non-combat troops remained in the country as advisers to the Caribbean Peacekeeping Force, in place until June 1985. General elections were held in Grenada on 3 December 1984.