THE UK Government now seems hesitant in its defence of the international law, principles and structures that the UK helped to establish the United Nations (UN) in the 1940s and the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the late 1990s.
Words are chosen to avoid calling out the USA or Israel when they violate the principles of the UN Charter. Government navigates around the ICC indictment of Israeli ministers, rather than actively supporting the court.
Are UK leaders silenced by the “special relationship”, which they dare not cool down because of blind faith in nuclear weapons and dependence on the United States for a “British” nuclear weapon system?
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In 1945, the UN was established in the hope of “saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war”. Grassroots organisations, like the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), were involved and retain consultative status with the UN’s Economic and Social Council.
The UN remains a work in progress built from grassroots campaigning, political leadership and endless diplomatic work.
The fundamental principles of Article 2 of the UN Charter establish a sovereign equality of all member states and a requirement that members resolve disputes peacefully, without the threat of force (unless in self-defence or with UN Security Council authorisation).
The principles also prohibit intervening in the domestic jurisdiction of any state. US military actions against Venezuela do not have Security Council authorisation and clearly breach Article 2 of the UN Charter.
Many members of the UN have fallen short of the UN ideals. The US has made multiple illegal attempts at regime change. But the UN structures have, nevertheless, sustained the possibilities of an international law that actively protects people and planet Its many institutions, such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), continue to play important roles in mitigating inequalities and harms.
But now the UN faces a US that defunds its institutions, denigrates its secretary general, joins Russia and Israel in violating its charter and watches UN personnel killed without condemnation.
The institutions built by and since the UN Charter are still young and their future cannot be taken for granted. UN legislation is only binding on the nation-states that have chosen to make it part of the law of their own state. Various US presidents signed treaties, then failed to get them supported by US Congress, including key UN conventions such as on the Rights of the Child, and the Comprehensive Nuclear Test-Ban Treaty.
The current US president seems UN-hostile and is threatening six member states – Colombia, Denmark, Iran, Nigeria, Mexico, and Venezuela – with military action. While the UN has sounder foundations than its failed predecessor, the League of Nations, it still depends on active international support from grassroots and governments.
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International law has been able to move forward more easily when historical opportunity has presented itself. Such as at the end of the Cold War when the ICC was founded. The necessary co-operation to establish the ICC only came about in the wake of the genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, decades after the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in 1948. Even then, seven states voted against, including the US and Israel which have never recognised ICC jurisdiction and now work to destroy its credibility.
Hope remains in the fact that international law is also advanced by coalitions of less powerful states.
The 2021 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) is one such instance. An alliance of non-nuclear states worked in consultation with a coalition of peace movement organisations, the International Campaign for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).
As more than half of all nation-states have now ratified the TPNW, pressure builds on the nuclear states to honour their promise of nuclear disarmament under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
A world that strives for peace, justice and equality depends on active and proactive support for international law. Current violations of its basic principles carry the risk that nuclear war will be the final destination.
Meanwhile, the natural world issues increasingly urgent warnings that all efforts should now be devoted to addressing the catastrophes of climate change and species loss. Talking up and preparing for war leads to war.
It is time for all nations to vigorously reaffirm the principles of the UN Charter and international law – to say it and to mean it. An independent nuclear-free Scotland could say it and mean it.
For the UK Government to constructively speak truth to US power, it must refuse complicity in dubious and criminal military actions, reject the mythology of nuclear deterrence and extract itself from abject dependence on US nuclear-weapon technologies.
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