Armed Conflicts, North Atlantic Treaty Organizations - Essay Example

Armed Conflicts Armed Conflicts In their various forms, conflicts, which involve dangerous weapons, still remain out of control in regard to the contemporary world. Both recent as well as the olden days wars, with war on terror inclusive, are still being fought, and violence, which is armed, especially in Darfur and Iraq result top dreadful impacts upon the lives of the citizens (Solis 2010). From these kinds of societal vices, many questions arise. These include; do the law provide protection in situations of armed conflicts? Which conduct can be said to be unlawful considering the armed conflicts? What is the meaning of people who are not combatants? which kind of protection is available in times of civil wars?. To answer these questions, it is wise if one understood why United Nations Peace Operations were put into place. The first step towards this is to understand the term peace operations. As such, it is a broad term in regard to its scope. It covers operations associated with peacekeeping as well as operations designed purposely to enforce peace. Such operations are usually conducted such that they support the efforts of the diplomats aimed towards peace maintenance. To be precise, the term is constituted of; peace building, peacemaking and peace enforcement (Solis 2010). The following discussion thereby, will critical evaluate the role that the law plays in situations of armed conflicts and further, it will illustrate how law gives guidelines on the conducts associated with hostility as well how it mitigates the fatal ends following the armed conflicts. Moreover, it will demonstrate how the law provide protection to civilians not only in international conflicts but also to non-international conflicts. In most cases, the main organization mandated to establish and implement peace operations is the United Nations. In regards to the last six years, the UN peace operations has gone through evolvement and thus lately integrated to the most important and main tool by which the international community uses to manage those crises that can be said to be complex and which pose as a threat to global security as well as peace (Solis 2010). The beginning of the new millennium saw the number of police, military and the civilian recruited in the peace keeping operation of the United Nations across the world adding up to the existing ones to exceptional levels. United Nations is a vital and efficient organization in dealing with the contemporary issues. It deals with issues such as; cease-fires, where they are called upon to monitor; Political processes, where they are given the responsibility to facilitate the process by promoting dialogue as well as understanding among conflicting parties; civilian protection; combatants, where they are reintegrated and demobilized; and rule of law, where the body is given the mandate to restore it (Solis 2010). In some cases, situations can prevail such that, the UN involvement is not feasible. Which organizations then are involved? These situations do not warrant a decision to leave the situation as it is. Furthermore, it is a human right that one should live in peace without any physical or mental disturbance whatsoever. The UN being the main organization, it has the authority to authorize other relevant and reliant organizations. In the recent years, the UN has given authority to such bodies as NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organizations), ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) as well as to countries that are willing to form a coalition in order to start the journey towards enforcement of peace and peacekeeping. Further, an equally important organization involved in peace operations is the Multinational Force and Observers on the Sinai Peninsula (Green 2008). North Atlantic Treaty Organizations This is an alliance between intergovernmental militaries and as such, these alliances are based on the North Atlantic Treaty. This treaty was undersigned in the late 1940s. NATO has its headquarters established at the heart of Brussels, Belgian’s main city. The organization is part of collective defence system and as such, the members of this alliance made an agreement concerning the mutual defence in an effort to respond to attacks inflicted by parties, who are not part of the alliance. The treaty proved to be an essential countermeasure in response to the aggressive attitude from the Soviet Union where the cold war prevailed. As such, the treaty safeguarded the Northern Atlantic community’s freedom. The U.N authorised the treaty, due to the objectivity entailed, to try commencing the efforts towards restoration of order in the province, that is, Kosovo. Economic Community of West African States This is a regional group of affiliate countries founded in the mid 1975 and today, it comprises of fifteen countries. The main aim of this regional group is to facilitate and promote the integration of the economy in each field contributing to the well being of the economies of the member countries. The main reason why this treaty was authorised was to try and implement the mandate, which was comprised in the 1132 resolution. This resolution concerned interdiction of ships that were heading to the Northern part of Sierra Leone. Multinational Force and Observers on the Sinai Peninsula Due to the signing of a treaty between the Egyptians and The Israelites, this alliance was established. This happened in early years of 1980s. As such, it is referred to as an international organization whose aim is to keep peace. The alliance has its offices in Egypt in a region known as Sinai Peninsula. Originally, it was established to facilitate the pervasiveness of peace between the two countries (Solis 2010). It is constituted of eleven countries and approximately; it has 3,000 militants and individuals, who are civilians. The field that the UN operate on is such that, it is necessary to link and give support to it. To efficiently do this, mechanisms, which are broad in relation to political aspect at the level should not only be those of the Security Council but beyond. These mechanisms should be only those that reinforce the UN’s role in politics and those that give authority and make the body weighty. Consolidation of the political stability in the whole country means that political actors in the region should corral. However, this task is not preferred to anyone heading missions, but it necessitates furthered and close coordination (Green 2008). In situations where there is decision dilemma regarding whether to deploy all the mechanisms, the council responsible with the security should always remember that political strategies, which are most effective in conclusions of conflicts, ought to be implemented guided by the mechanisms rather than the operations for peace. Definitively, the United Nations has a treaty system that is responsible for the establishment of the global interest that is legitimate towards protection and respect of the human rights. The supervision internationally by the U.N is valid and as such, all the countries across the world, whenever acts, which have a negative effect on the lives of the citizens, that is, the human rights are violated arise; the countries in question are answerable to the international authorities (Solis 2010). The major aspect with human rights treaties put into consideration is that they are the standard for both concern and evaluation. Human rights treaties are have obligations but many tend to be assumed freely. The legal character placed on these rights is what makes them to be at the core of the human right system globally (Schindler & Toman 2008). The United Nations Human Rights Treaties The United Nations stipulated human rights are usually placed at the centre of the international systems due to their consistent efforts towards promotions as well as protection of the rights relating to the humans. Countries that constitute the United Nations are indeed serves as a party to at least one of the treaties based on the human rights. Usually, there are nine human rights treaties. The U.N human right treaty system applies universally protecting each and every child, woman or man provided he or she is living. For the United Nations to effectively maintain considerable security levels as well as ensure prevailing international peace, then it requires the rule of law. The rule of law is best defined as the framework consisting of politics and legitimacy within which every country; institution as well as people are accountable to. It is a fundamental step in the rule of law if unending peace, taking into account the conflict repercussion is to be established. It is worth noting that the police commissioner within the U.N must put his sign to show that he agrees to primarily hand over the responsibilities associated with policing to the National Police of Timor-Leste (Schindler & Toman 2008).Public spread of the law is necessary. As such, it shows that it is enforced equally and further, it is judged independently and hence consistent with the norms related to international rights as well as the international standards set by the international human right bodies. The essence of peacekeeping is that it not only strengthens the justice and the police unit, it also strengthens correction units and institutions, which accesses their accountability. Due to inadequately trained personnel’s, who are given the mandate to enforce the law, it is likely that there will prevail an environment characterized by high levels of insecurity and a culture whereby, impunity is predominant. Consequently, the delivery of justice, believe in state owned institutions as well as the public confidence will be greatly hampered (Solis 2010). Those individuals serving in the police units in any country across the world have a legacy whereby, they are perceived as oppression instruments. Further, the public perceive them as in confusion and as such, they lack skills necessary in policing. In reality, the police unit is compromised of individuals who previously had served as combatants. This being the case, they must have been involved actively in any form of conflict or even must have been subject to militarised outlook and equipment (Schindler & Toman 2008). The rise of nationalism as well as the recognition of right associated with the humans internationally can be said to have histories as well as culture baggage, which overlap. As such, they do justify each other. At times, nationalism has discriminatory perspectives as well as force, which is repressive and as such, they tend to undermine the rights of a human being. In recent years, the designated strategic objectives of the peace operation system have had a fundamental change. This therefore has resulted to mandate of the United Nations council responsible for the security to increasingly come up with a purpose applying multi-dimensionally. In the contemporary world, the mandate is now clear such that the range of approaches and instruments, which are characterized with complexity are employed in response to operations for peace (Schindler & Toman 2008). In peace operations, the process requires heightened integration if at all the United Nations would wish to see an everlasting worldwide peace being secured. The United Nations has indeed proved to be efficient in its peace operation whereby it goes to an extent of taking fundamental steps; they have adopted programs, mechanisms as well as innovative policies. However, they are still challenged in their efforts towards securing global peace (Solis 2010). These challenges arise while trying to improve the coordination and integration of such broader aspects of peace, that is; joint as well as the mutual efforts applied in war infested countries. A case Study on Nationalism: Rwanda Genocide It has been a controversial case when the subject of the topic is Humanitarian intervention. As such, it is when the situation occurs or fails to happen. In mid 1990s, Rwanda experienced what can be termed as an action full of horror. At that time, the secretariat serving at the U.N together with some of the members deployed in the security council office were aware that the people associated to the then governing body, including the most loyal members were planning for genocide attack (Schindler & Toman 2008). At the onset of these plans, some United Nation troops were present and as such, they had adequate and credible strategies that could indeed shun away the ordeal. If they could not have helped in completely prevent the attack, they could then at least mitigate the genocide that was to follow. Instead, the United Nation Security Council opted to intervene and thus the fate was executed. This is a case of an abuse of power of the highest order, that is, the failure associated with the will of the international society. What followed after was that the regions around the great lakes were destabilized and as such, the aftermath is still felt today. In this line of knowledge, most of the countries in the African continent came to conclude that, considering the rhetoric notion of human rights applying universality, some lives in some countries where armed conflicts are predominant are mattered less to the international community as compared to other countries. Some few people argue that the international community is not doing enough to intervene in armed conflicts in countries. Some other people regard the U.N as excessively intervening. Some other individuals usually feel that the real issue existing is; ensuring that there is effectiveness in coercive interventions. Moreover, the queries concerning the legality, possibility of precedent misuse as well as well as the process involved in interventions looms largely (Solis 2010). Another category perceives the U.N peace operations give rise to a new world where the rights of individuals tend to trump the sovereignty. All these are controversies and as such, they lay basic divisions within the United Nations. It is necessary that the underlying divisions be resolved to the best interest of those individuals subjected to suffering as well as deaths due to failure in leadership and institutions (Schindler & Toman 2008). The principle of sovereignty should not be discarded but rather should be viewed as a responsibility. Primarily, the state is responsible for the protection of the citizens. According to the case study, it is evident that the international population do suffer from harming situations. Due to the presence of insurgency, state failure, repression as well as war, a state becomes unwilling, if not inability to intervene. Thereby, the non-intervention principle gives rise to the responsibility of the international society to protect. As such, it can be thought of a dramatic departure or a great alienation from the law on human rights applying internationally. Still, it can be assumed that a nation that fails to show the responsibilities in protecting its citizens is incapable of provoking the enshrined protection in Article II as stipulated by the charter. The idea of human rights protection responsibility maybe to some extent revolutionary, it is better to base it on the guiding principles, which are well known. These include the sovereignty concept as well as the U.N’s Security Council responsibility as spelled out under Article 24 in the international community charter, under the declarations in regard to the rights of a human and the international security and peace (Schindler & Toman 2008). Protection can be said to be the most specific and important dimension associated with the protection responsibility. As such, the available options for prevention ought to be exhausted before an intervention measure can be implemented. The United Nation indeed shows this by ensuring that, in countries where signs of armed conflicts are imminent, it sends Security Council representatives to try preventing the conflicts occurrence. Where these representatives are faced with an obstacle such that their efforts become futile, the United Nation now takes explicit measure within their jurisdictions and hence intervenes. They send their troops to facilitate peace keeping in cases where conflicts go to the extremes such that they turn out to involve arms. From this analysis, it is evident that the United Nation is the main organisation designed to undertake peace operations. It has the mandate to authorize other bodies to promote the peace operations in areas where the human rights governing body is prohibited. Such bodies include, North Atlantic Treaty Organizations (NATO), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as well as Multinational Force and Observers on the Sinai Peninsula (Solis 2010). For the international society to perform the peace operations effectively, it ensures that certain human rights aspects are complied with. These include; Human Rights Treaties and mechanisms for strategic civilian protection. In their various forms, conflicts, which involve dangerous weapons, remain out of control concerning the contemporary world (Green 2008). Both recent as well as the olden days wars, with war on terror inclusive, are still being fought, and violence, which is armed, especially in Darfur and Iraq result top dreadful impacts upon the lives of the citizens. From the above discussion of the peace operations by the U.N and its partners, we can deduce that indeed the international body has succeeded in ensuring a worldwide prevailing peace, be it by peace keeping or by humanitarian intervention. The shortcomings mentioned should not be taken to mean the incapability to handle armed conflicts. Everything, irrespective of the underlying perfection or superiority is a subject to shortcomings and such, the international community, that is, the U.N, is not an exception. The controversies that were seen in the case study about the Rwanda genocide sparked serious debates, this resulted to amendments being established within the Security Council within the U.N, and until today, the International Community has central approach towards maintenance of peace in the conflicting countries (Green 2008). References Green, L. C., 2008. The contemporary law of armed conflict. New York: Juris Publishing, Inc. Schindler, D., & Toman, J., 2008. The laws of armed conflicts: a collection of conventions. Leiden: Brill Solis, D. G., 2010. The Law of Armed Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Solis, G. D., 2010. International Humanitarian Law in War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Read More