The Success of Jurisdiction of International Law - Term Paper Example

Success of jurisdiction of international law After the devastating effect of World War 2, international law system was formed to protect the rights of individuals and to treat all the individuals as equal irrespective of their cast and creed. The terrible consequences of Japan made people realized how horribly war can affect people and their future generations to be. Therefore, a set of laws were formed as part of international law to protects the rights of people and minimize the effect of war and arms (Meron, 1989). Thus League of Nations was replaced by the charter of United Nations that developed universal declaration of human rights and international humanitarian law. The members of United Nations are now comprised of 200 members as the need of peace and cooperation is realized by even the most powerful nations. Universal Declaration of Human Rights According to universal declaration of human rights, all indivials are equal and have the right to freedom. They are not to be prejudiced for their color, nationality or religion. They are entitiled to a honest life and deserve equal amount of justice without any discrimination. No person should be exiled, or arrested arbitrary and no one should be subjected to torture or slavery. A person’s privacy and honor should be respected and freedom of thought and religion are granted without question. The universal declaration of human rights is accepted by various states and is considered as an authoritative representative of human rights (Carter, Barry and Trimble, 1992). All the states are legally binded to respect and follow UDHCR as a customary law ( Forrest and Tushnit, 1999). International humanitarian law International humanitarian law, also known as the law of war is set to protect the civilians from the conflicts of war. It is part of the international law, stated in agreement between states after the dreadful ending of World War 2. The rules set in humanitarian law are carefully considered by states and they have grown with the growth of international community (Doswald-Beck, 1993). The major concern of internal humanitarian law starts after a war initiates, and is set to protect the civilians who aren’t participating in war. It also implies certain restrictions on the weapons to be used after the war initiates. It also protects those who are no longer taking part in the war such as injured soldiers and war prisoners (Levie, 1979). Also protection is granted to medical personnel and staff and religious personnel. The law also determines that war prisoners should be provided ample amount of food and medical care and should be allowed to exchange messages with their family members (Fleck, 1999). The law also prohibits the kinds of weapons that create harmful effects for the environment. Chemical and biological weapons are strictly prohibited by internal humanitarian law (Upadhay, S., 2002). Implementation of humanitarian law After the World War 2, the concept of war changed among people. Previously the international law was only concerned with war between states, now the focus is also on internal conflicts within a state. It is realized that human rights are just as important during wars as they are during peace. The U.N. mission in Sierra Leone, established by Security Council in 1999, was the first effort towards peacekeeping for the protection of civilians. The activities of peacekeeping are to supervise cease-fires, maintain law and order, and provide medical aid and to protect refugees. It also helped in negotiating up to 172 peaceful regional settlements and has formed 300 treaties on human rights. It has also provided aid to 30 million refugees and has granted medical and food aids. A treaty law has been built by International Humanitarian Law for the prohibition of conventional weapons. U.N. also takes the matters of violations of international law seriously, it set up a judge to investigate occurrence of violations between Israeli’s and Palestine’s militants. It has also formed special commission to solve the Palestinian conflict. Violation of law In spite of all the conventions and agreements, international humanitarian law is violated to a major extent. A greater number of civilians are injured and suffered major losses even today by the so called war of terrorism. A lot of countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and Kashmir and Chechnya are suffering from such violations. War against terrorism After the September 11 attacks on twin towers, American government decided to counter attach and forego all the agreements and laws of human rights in its war of vengeance. The idea that war on Afghanistan took place for one man, Osama bin laden is preposterous as according to American government it was a good reason to kill thousands of innocent civilians. Certain muslin and Arabic communities raised suspicions to the intentions of United States as Afghanistan is blessed with the reserves of oil and gas. Their suspicions seem legitimate as even after destroying the Taliban’s, U.S. has not removed its military from Afghanistan and U.N. seems to have a blindfold against it. Demonstrations have even taken place against it around the world, but still no actions have been undertaken which says something about the power of United Nations Organization, International law and community. War on Iraq The war on Iraq was again uncalled for, as the U.S. government again initiated the war on the basis of one person, saddam Hussein. A recent ally was now considered an enemy as he threatened U.S oil interest in the gulf area. Thousands of Iraqis were killed due to bombardment of missiles by U.S. government and still there was no reaction from the U.N. various laws were broken to undertake this war and no penalty was given to U.S.A. for doing so. It was also stated that a large amount of nuclear weapons are hidden in Iraqi soil which to date have not being found. However, no one raised the question as where are these weapons which were so talked about and for which the Iraqi soil was invaded. According to a survey there have been 654,965 “excess deaths” in the war and 2.5% of Iraq’s population died without any conflict. The reason for this war is also considered to gain the ample amount of oil reserves present in Iraq as the cause of war, saddam Hussein, has been terminated a while ago. Kashmir issue Kashmir is another territory that is facing military resistance. Being betrayed by their ruler sufferings of Kashmir people is going on for decades. India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir since they were established. The population of Kashmir was mostly comprised of Muslims, thus wanted to be part of Pakistan, however the ruler of Kashmir was a Hindu, therefore he sold his land to India despite the wishes of his people. Thus, military assault was initiated by the government of India and so many kahmiris have been killed in the process. In spite of being aware of the situation U.N. is not doing anything and no actions have been undertaken by it. People of Kashmir are suffering because law is only for the weaker. It is high time that Kashmir is realized as a neutral territory and people of Kashmir should be given freedom from the hostile crimes they are facing since decades. War on Palestine Palestinians have been long suffering invasion from Israelis and even after the warnings of U.N., Israeli government refused to remove its militants. However, the U.N. just kept quite after giving warnings and no actions were undertaken by it to remove the invasion. The international law again failed to maintain jurisdiction as Israel is still killing and bombarding in Palestine and the world is just watching. A lot of talks for condemnation of Israel have happened but it seems that they were only talks and no action. War on Chechnya Chechnya people faced a lot of suffering due to civil war forced on them by Russia. The people were facing violent crimes since a decade, but after the September, 11 incident, Russia got a new excuse. It stated that it is further broadening the war against terrorism and provided such lame excuse for its violent war crimes on innocent Chechnya people. More than 200,000 people have died since the war has broken out in Chechnya in 1994 and the similar number have been wounded. More than 70,000 Russian troops have invaded the land of Chechnya. Still, world kept quiet and no actions have been undertaken by U.N. to stop this raging madness. Chechen women are reported being raped frequently by Russian soldiers and reports of abduction of women has become common news. Conclusion Events such as invasion in Kashmir and Palestine, conflicts in Colombia and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq confront us with the cruelty of war and raise questions as to what are the restrictions for such hostile measures. Grave concerns have been arisen regarding international law due to these wars. Especially after Iraqi war it is considered that no justification was provided from U.S. to undertake this war which makes the whole war doubtful and the role of U.N. futile. The reason given by U.N. for the war against terrorism was that self defense is applicable and that such hostile measures can be taken for self defense which created confusion as the rules are contradicting themselves. The question arises that whether a war can be humanized and if yes then to what extent. Is it not the case that the purpose of establishing International humanitarian law was to avoid such hostile measures? The international humanitarian law was also challenged by Bush government, who demanded an up-to-date set of rules in order to undertake their war against terrorism. Such demands from super powers make one wonder about the future of humanitarian law. The unclear rules also create problems for soldiers, as they are not sure how to treat civilians during a war. An example of that would be of Canadian soldiers in Somalia who were unaware of rules and didn’t know how to treat civilians. A lot of war crimes are also undertaken by these soldiers and they face no repercussions from their authorities. Killing and raping of civilians has become a common war crime. The asymmetric warfare is also becoming a serious issue globally. At one side, the more powerful party ignores the rules set by international law; on the other hand lesser powerful party uses human shields to fight. In both cases it is the civilians who suffer. Asymmetric warfare has created such destruction that civilians are now specifically targeted, and rape of women and murder of children has become a regular occurrence. Even humanitarian workers and journalists have become targets. Kidnappings and murders of them are occurring frequently, making the workers and their family members anxious for their lives. The aggression and violence has arisen a lot more and neutrality of workers is not even getting considered (Beigbeder, 1991). It seems that international law is working for the powerful nations as it is creating inequality among states. The agreements are broken and followed as per the state’s likings and law is modified in ways to keep the interest of the powerful nations. Use of war to gain political and economic support is becoming common for these nations. The bombing of civilian areas and detaining of people without legal reason is example of that. These detainees are prevented any legal rights and contacts with family members which is a clear violation of humanitarian law. The challenge for United Nations and internal community is that to form a set of penalty rules for those states that violate international law (Sassòli, 2002). It is a difficult task as the majority of wars are conducted by the super powers who disregard the laws without any justification (Bedjaoui, 1986). The laws should be formed to make sure that justice is provided equally to all parties regardless of their power and force. The task is difficult but it is not impossible. All the states should sign the law and boycott the state that violates the law. Only this way justice can be achieved and these so called wars against terrorism will end. References Upadhay, S. Environment Protection, Land and Energy Laws. Handbook on Environmental Law series, Vol. 3. Delhi: LexisNexis Butterworths. 2002. Theodor Meron. Human Rights and Humanitarian Norms as Customary Law, Clarendon University Press, Oxford. 1989. Carter, Barry and Phillip Trimble. International Law. p. 899. 1992. Martin, Francisco Forrest and Mark V. Tushnet. The Rights International Companion to Constitutional Law, Cambridge, MA: Kluwer Law International and Rights International, 1999. 4. Levie, H. S.: Protection of War Victims: Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, 4 vols & supplement, Dobbs Ferry, 1979 Bedjaoui, M. (ed.): Modern Wars, The Humanitarian Challenge, London, 1986 Beigbeder, Y.: The Role and Status of International Humanitarian Volunteers and Organizations – The Right and Duty to Humanitarian Assistance, Dordrecht/ Boston/London, 1991 Fleck, D. (ed.): The Handbook of Humanitarian Law, Oxford, 1999 Doswald-Beck L, Vité S. International humanitarian law and human rights law; March-April 1993 Sassòli M. State responsibility for violations of international humanitarian law; June 2002 Read More