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International Law

The Premises Of The Diplomatic Mission Shall Be Inviolable

April 12, 2024 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. , , , , , ,
We live in dishonest times, where certainties have crumbled, and malevolence stalks the landscape. There is Gaza, of course. Gaza above all else is on our minds. Over 33,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since 7 October, with more than 7,000 people missing (5,000 of them children). The Israeli government has brutally disregarded the global public opinion mounted against them. Billions of people are outraged by the stark fact of their violence and yet we are unable to force a ceasefire from an army that has decided to raze an entire people.

Rights Expert Finds ‘Reasonable Grounds’ Genocide Is Being Committed

March 27, 2024 UN News. , , , , , ,
Francesca Albanese was speaking at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where she presented her latest report, entitled ‘Anatomy of a Genocide’, during an interactive dialogue with Member States. “Following nearly six months of unrelenting Israeli assault on occupied Gaza, it is my solemn duty to report on the worst of what humanity is capable of, and to present my findings,” she said. “There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide…has been met.”

To Save Israel, US Destroys International System It Built

March 10, 2024 Ramzy Baroud, Consortium News. , , , , ,
In a conversation in 2020, Princeton Professor Emeritus Richard Falk told me that historically, colonized nations that have won the battle for legitimacy have always won their freedom. Palestine is unlikely to be the exception. The Gaza war, however, is confronting the world with an unprecedented challenge, specifically to governments’ relationship with international law and their obligations to international institutions, such as the United Nations, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the International Criminal Court (ICC) and others.

The Charter International System Is In Deep Crisis

March 4, 2024 Richard Sakwa, Canadian Dimension. , , , ,
In 1945, humanity came together to create the Charter international system based on the United Nations. It expressed the hope that after the most catastrophic war the world had yet seen, a comprehensive set of normative principles and institutional practices would prevent another conflict of that magnitude from ever occurring again. By coming together on a set of shared principles, the hope was that a better system of international relations would emerge. The result was the UN and its foundational Charter, reinforced subsequently by numerous declarations, protocols and conventions.

Hundreds Of Lawmakers Worldwide Demand Cutting Arms Sales To Israel

March 2, 2024 News Desk, The Cradle. , , , ,
Over 200 MPs from 12 states signed a letter urging their governments to impose a ban on weapons sales to Israel. In the letter, organized by Progressive International and signed on 1 March, the MPs say they refuse to be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in Gaza. The organizers believe that certain governments supplying arms to the Israeli military could be held legally accountable, given the scale of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip. Those who signed the letter are all MPs of states that supply Israel with military aid. Nine are current or former party leaders.

Popular Enforcement Of International Law From Vietnam To Gaza

February 21, 2024 Jeremy Brecher, Labor Network for Sustainability . , , , , , , ,
In a decision issued January 31, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California found that there is a credible case that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and that the US is supporting its actions.[1] It called on the Biden administration to “examine the results of their unflagging support of the military siege against the Palestinians in Gaza.” While it said it had no authority to order the US to stop, it called on ordinary individuals to “confront the current siege in Gaza.” This Commentary is offered as a starting point for thinking about the implications of this decision for all of us.

For God’s Sake Joe, What the Hell Are You Doing?

February 4, 2024 Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright, Popular Resistance. , , , , , ,
It's 3am and I can’t sleep again. All of us concerned about Gaza and the West Bank are spending sleepless nights and busy days trying desperately to pressure the Biden administration to stop its complicity the relentless Israeli genocide in Gaza, to stop providing weapons and money to Israel and to demand an end to the carnage.  Ceasefire Now! We awakened to the news that the US has attacked Syria, Iraq and Yemen in retaliation for militants firing missiles into US troop areas in Syria and Jordan and Houthis stopping Red Sea cargo ships.  Why have there been attacks on U.S. troops and interests??

Biden’s UNRWA Cuts Are A Violation Of International And US Law

January 29, 2024 Decensored News. , , , , , ,
During an appearance on MSNBC on Saturday, international law professor Francis Boyle discussed the implications of this week’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) order in South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, the cutoff of funds to UNRWA, the Biden administration’s legal complicity under both international and US law, and how this might play out at the UN Security Council and General Assembly. Boyle is well-qualified to weigh in on the matter: After becoming the first lawyer to successfully argue a genocide case at the ICJ (also known as the World Court) on behalf of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Boyle then went on to win a second order in that case—“massive and overwhelming in their favor against Yugoslavia, to cease and desist from committing all acts of genocide,” he explains.

Overcoming Obstacles To United Nations Maintenance Of Peace

January 25, 2024 Lawrence Wittner, Counter Punch. , , ,
Although, according to the UN Charter, the United Nations was established to “maintain international peace and security,” it has often fallen short of this goal. Russia’s ongoing military invasion of Ukraine and the more recent Israeli-Palestinian war in Gaza provide the latest examples of the world organization’s frequent paralysis in the face of violent international conflict. The hobbling of the Security Council, the UN agency tasked with enforcing international peace and security, bears the lion’s share of the responsibility for this weakness. Under the rules set forth by the UN Charter, each permanent member of the Security Council has the power to veto Security Council resolutions.

Palestinian-Led Initiative Warns European Officials Of Intention To Prosecute Over Complicity With Israel

January 24, 2024 Justice and Accountability for Palestine, Popular Resistance. , , ,
The Justice and Accountability for Palestine Initiative has issued a stark warning to European public officials of the Austrian, French, German and Dutch governments that they could be individually liable for their role in aiding and abetting Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of Genocide through their involvement in providing military, economic, and political support to Israel.  Sustaining such assistance implicates European public officials in the perpetration of war crimes and crimes against humanity as well as failure to prevent the crime of genocide. This may render officials criminally liable for violating international law by ‘aiding and abetting’  Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people. 

South Africa’s Case Against Israel Is ‘Make Or Break’ For International Bodies

January 22, 2024 Margaret Flowers, Clearing the FOG. , , , , , ,
Beginning on January 11, the International Court of Justice held two days of testimony regarding the case brought by South Africa against the state of Israel calling on The Court to impose provisional measures to stop Israel from committing acts of genocide against Palestinian people. Clearing the FOG speaks with South African lawyer and activist, Azhar Sakoor, about the significance of the case and other legal efforts aiming to hold all who are complicit with genocide in Palestine accountable. Sakoor also describes the current legal efforts as a 'make or break' moment for international institutions such as the United Nations that will determine whether they continue to exist or are replaced by other institutions and methods of upholding international law.

Global South Takes Israel To Court

January 19, 2024 Vijay Prashad, Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. , , , , , ,
On 11 January, Adila Hassim, an advocate of the High Court of South Africa, stood before the judges of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and said: ‘Genocides are never declared in advance. But this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies a plausible claim of genocidal acts’. This statement anchored Hassim’s presentation of South Africa’s 84-page complaint against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. Both Israel and South Africa are parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention.

As US Veto Power Enables Genocide, There Are Options to Protect Gaza

December 27, 2023 Marjorie Cohn, Truthout. , , , , , , , ,
As Israel continues its genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza — with the death toll now exceeding 20,000 (about 70 percent women and children) — the world seems powerless to stop the slaughter. The Biden administration, Israel’s chief enabler, defanged the resolution that was ultimately passed by the UN Security Council on December 22, rendering it merely symbolic. The final resolution calls for humanitarian assistance but not for a ceasefire which would allow aid to reach the people of Gaza. The U.S. saved diplomatic face by not employing its customary veto, but it did not vote for the resolution, electing instead to abstain.

Venezuela Secures Release Of Government Envoy Alex Saab

December 20, 2023 José Luis Granados Ceja, Venezuelanalysis. , , , , ,
Venezuela successfully negotiated the release of Alex Saab, a government envoy who spent more than three years detained. Saab landed in Caracas on Wednesday afternoon and was greeted by his family and Venezuelan government officials. His release comes as a result of a negotiation between the Nicolás Maduro government and the Joe Biden administration that will see the release of up to 36 people, 10 of them US citizens, currently detained in Venezuela. The Maduro government envoy was arrested during a refueling stopover in Cape Verde in June 2020 on his way to Iran to negotiate food and fuel import deals amidst US sanctions.

The JFK Assassination Was Good For Zionist Israel

December 17, 2023 Rick Sterling, MintPress News. , , , ,
President John F. Kennedy was assassinated sixty years ago. If he had lived and won a second term, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would have evolved differently. Possibly, the path toward Israeli apartheid and genocide in Gaza could have been avoided. In his short time in office, Kennedy significantly changed U.S. foreign policy. As documented in the book “JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Still Matters,” JFK resisted the CIA and military-industrial complex in the policies he set regarding the Third World and the Soviet Union. The Vietnam War, the assassination of Indonesia’s President Sukarno, and continued hostility to Cuba and the Soviet Union would not have happened had Kennedy lived and won a second term.
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