International Law
"Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. therefore [individual citizens] have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring." : Nuremberg War Crime Tribunal, 1950
"The pursuit of unilateralism has not only done lasting damage to American credibility, but it has also split the West and undermined virtually every major global institution devoted to advancing the rule of law, beginning with the United Nations and reaching down to the latest creation, the International Criminal Court." (from Geoffrey Perret's book 'Commander in Chief')
"A large majority of the public believe that the United States should accept the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the World Court, sign the Kyoto protocols, allow the United Nations to take the lead in international crises, and rely on diplomatic and economic measures more than military ones in the "war on terror." Similar majorities believe the United States should resort to force only if there is "strong evidence that the country is in imminent danger of being attacked," thus rejecting the bipartisan consensus on "preemptive war" and adopting the rather conventional interpretation of the UN Charter reiterated by the UN's lead even if it in not the preference of US state managers."....Not only does the US government stand apart from the rest of the world on many crucial issues, but even from its own population." From Noam Chomsky's book Failed States. (pg 229)
"Recently the United Nations led the world in condemning our conduct in the torture of prisoners and depriving them of simple due process at Guantánamo Bay. The United Nations demanded that Guantánamo Bay be closed. At the same time further acts of torture at Abu Ghraib prison were revealed by Australian television, pictures that show even worse abuses and degradation than those broadcast in America several years ago. We have squandered our standing as a leader in democracy. In its place we have become the epitome of hypocrisy across the earth, a nation that preaches to other nations concerning human rights and that secretly commits unconscionable acts of torture itself. I love my country. But I am ashamed of what my country does under the rubric of national security. We can never be secure by becoming the world’s most blatant hypocrites." From Gary Spence's book Bloodthirsty Bitches and Pious Pimps of Power
Q: "David Krieger directs the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation in Santa Barbara. In a recent article, he asked the question, “Why are there still nuclear weapons?” And he proposes some answers. What would you say?
A: "Simply that the nuclear-armed states are criminal states. They have a legal obligation, confirmed by the World Court, to live up to Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which calls on them to carry out good-faith negotiations to eliminate nuclear weapons entirely. None of the nuclear states has lived up to it. The United States has violated the agreement much more than others. It’s in the lead in violating the NPT—especially this administration, which has stated that it isn’t subject to Article 6 and has developed new nuclear weapons systems. The Non-Proliferation Treaty is just one of a collection of treaties. The others have been dismantled and blocked by the Bush administration. in fact, the United States just entered into an agreement with India, ratified by Congress, that tears to shreds the central part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty." From Noam Chomsky's book What We Say Goes
Can the US reclaim the moral high ground ? Yale Law School Dean Koh's speech to Citizens for Global Solutions. See this (under 10 minute) video.
"I know very well that a world government may have both good and bad qualities. Nonetheless, it is the only conceivable machinery which can prevent war. I do not believe that a world government would be just in all its decisions; but with technology at its present level, even a poor world government is preferable to none, since our first goal must be to avoid total destruction through war." (1948) Einstein on Politics, Rowe and Schulmann. Pg 455.
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International Rescue Committee
Center for Peace Studies Videos Lectures by Francis Boyle.
The Declaration of Independence reads "a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.", but Republicans have shown only contempt for international law and the results are evident in the Pew Global Attitudes Project.
...the publics in many predominately Muslim countries, Latin America, and China see the United States as their greatest potential threat. For example, two-thirds of Chinese(66%) and nearly as many in Turkey and Pakistan (64% each), name the United States as the country that poses the greatest threat to their own country in the future. Majorities in Venezuela (54%) and Argentina (52%) also view the United States as a potential threat.
The Bush administration has thumbed its nose at international law. Chertoff's vision spurns international law. Both Alito and Roberts dismissed international law as irrelevant to the United States. McCain's judicial plans are in lock step with Bush.
Bush has made a number of disastrous decisions for the US. The results he promised: endless war, new arms race, torture, renditions, have cost the US the moral high ground and we have lost much of the prestige that we had painstakingly built over time. Programs to protect the environment and the people have been devastated so that military spending can proceed at ruinous levels. Congressional oversight has atrophied so that Constitutional checks have been all but destroyed.
The UN and its enforcement of constraints of international law could save us from the kind of failure brought upon us by the Bush administration, and it might have saved us from some of the Bush devastation.
Kofi Anan, when Secretary General of the UN, warned that the Iraq war is illegal. Had his voice been heeded, the US might not be in the disastrous war brought upon us by the Bushies.
The only two countries that did not ratify the Convention on the rights of the child are the US and Somalia. A UN report documents the terrible violence against children that globally obtains today. "Every country in the world with the exception of two (Somalia and ... the United States) has ratified the International Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989)."
The US has not ratified the Convention on Forced Disappearances. (See Naomi Klein's book Shock Doctrine.)
The US has not signed the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Rather than recognize the International Criminal Court, the Congress threatened to invade Belgium if any US citizens were prosecuted there.
The US has not ratified the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women.
The US signed, but did not ratify, the Kyoto Protocol.
189 countries have signed the biodiversity convention, key document regarding sustainable development, but not the US. Almost half of the 4000 plant patents granted in recent years by the United States pertain to traditional knowledge from developing countries. (Stiglitz. Making Globalization Work. pg 126.)
"Bush administration officials have spoken out against an agreement, reached at a 1994 U.N. conference in Cairo, that calls for controlling population growth by expanding access to health care and being more responsive to women's needs. U.S. officials argue that certain phrases in the agreement - including "reproductive health services" and "reproductive rights" - condone abortion as well as sex and condom use among teenagers." Source here.
According to Francis Boyle the
More than 150 nations, including the U.S.'s closest allies, have banned antipersonnel mines forever. The U.S. should not be getting back into the business of producing and using these indiscriminate weapons," said Jody Williams, co-laureate of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
US refuses to join ban on cluster bombs. (5/28/2008)
Many civilized countries have abolished the death penalty. The US has not.
Torture is now standard US procedure. See UN comments on torture.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights should be a part of US law since it was signed in 1948, but it is recognized only selectively by the US. (Full text of International Human Rights instruments.)
The US votes alone at the UN in favor of weaponizing space. It claims the right to control space.
Republicans threaten to cut off funding to the UN if it does not do as it is told. When Republicans say 'reform', they mean destroy. UN Charter.
U.S. Violates International Law by Failing to Enforce Laws Protecting Rights of Mexican Workers
The US has
reneged
on agreements to aid underdeveloped countries...but it is
a world class arms supplier. "In 1970 the United Nations adopted an
international target for official aid, recommending that donor countries give
0.7% of their national income in foreign assistance. Today only four countries
meet that target: the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. Denmark is the
most generous, giving aid worth more than 1% of GDP
in 1999 (the latest year for which OECD figures are
available)." from the
Economist.
Media rarely mentions the US failure to honor its international commitments.
China for years has been in the lead at the United Nations in trying to establish treaties that would preserve space for peaceful uses. The United States has blocked such efforts unilaterally—it goes back to Clinton, incidentally, but intensified substantially with Bush— increasing the likelihood of an arms race in space, which very significantly increases the risk of even accidental destruction. And it could mean terminal destruction. But the U.S. government proceeds, knowing the risks and just not caring about them." Noam Chomsky: What We Say Goes
Canada Scraps Refugee Agreement w/US Because It Tortures, Does Not Obey Int'l Law
U.S. Is No Haven, Canadian Judge Finds
By ADAM LIPTAK
The New York Times - Dec 10, 2007Destroying World Order: Francis Boyle
Professor Chomsky discusses why the UN does not vote with the US much of the time. This MIT World lecture is a video of about an hour and 20 minutes. Chomsky is widely recognized as one of America's leading intellectuals, but he almost never appears on mainstream media. See his book Manufacturing Consent for the reasons.
Conversation with Harold Koh, Dean of the Yale Law School, 55 minutes.