Environmental Damages and the 1991 Gulf War: Some Yardsticks Before the UNCC

Abstract

Environmental damages caused by Iraqi occupation of Kuwait and its aftermath are to be assessed through the compensation system created by the UN Security Council. The UN Compensation Commission (‘UNCC’) has scheduled its first decision on environmental claims for the summer of 2001. These claims, however, deserve a particular treatment by the UNCC: problems related to the law applicable, the principle of due process, the principle of causal link, the assessment of damage, the identification of injured subjects, and the type of compensation are particularly addressed in the following pages. Keeping in mind the ‘precedent-setting procedure’ used by the UNCC, this article tries to explore previous applicable precedents, ordering them into a structured ‘legal’ framework and exposing existing gaps, if any.