The realm of self help

During most of the 20th century international law was the “realm self help”. The most powerful nations in the world decided what international law was and then imposed it on weaker nations. No where was this more evident that the “victor’s justice” that was imposed on Germany and Japan following WW II. The victorious allies decided that the military and civilian leaders were responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity, tried them, convicted them and imprisoned or executed them.

Following the founding of the UN, international law has become more codified through a series of treaties and judicial decisions, but it is clearly an evolving process. Under a UN Human Rights Committee mandate South African judge Richard Goldstone issued a report that found that there was credible evidence that Israel and Hamas committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 2008 Gaza war. He called upon the parties to conduct credible investigations within six months and, if they did not, that the cases be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The response of the US and other western countries indicates that we are returning to the “realm of self” where the powerful nations, the guys with the biggest guns, get to decide who is called to account.

When a case was brought in the UK against Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, a UK court found that he could not be arrested since the alleged crimes were perpetrated in his role as a government minister. When I called my Congressman to request that he not support a House of Representatives resolution which demanded that the Obama administration oppose the Goldstone Report and any referral to the ICC, I was advised by his staff that prevailing opinion in Washington was that the behavior alleged by Goldstone was not the business of the international community and that Israel and Hamas were responsible for conducting their own investigations. (It certainly was the prevailing opinion as the resolution passed 336 – 34)

If this is the state of international law, western powers should have insisted that Slobodan Milosevic and Radavan Karadcic be investigated by Serbia and Republika Srpska and be given immunity from their crimes committed during the Balkan conflict based on their positions as government officials. Is it any wonder that emerging and third world countries accuse the US and other western powers of a double standard?