World Order Essays

World Order Essays World Order Essay World Order Essay Evaluate the effectiveness of the law relating to world order in achieving justice for individuals, justice for society and justice for the nation state. World order is a term that to the balance among nation of the world. The need for world order has changed as the balance of power changes, as a result of differences between nations, the aspiration for territory or power, conflicts follow therefore resulting in a change in the balance of power. At the build up to the Gulf War, President George Bush Snr. alled for a ‘new world order’ to replace the hostile world order of the Cold War. This world order was no longer simply divided in two; it was to be ‘a world order where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle, a world where the strong respect the rights of the weak’. The effectiveness of the law in achieving justice for individuals, society and nation-states in relation to world order has been predominantly ineffective in ac hieving justice. One of the utmost criticisms of the international law has been its focus on nation states. Article 34(1) of the Statue of the International court of Justice (ICJ) explicitly states that only nation states may be parties in cases of the ICJ, and there is virtually no provision for individuals to use international law in order to achieve justice. The wording of the article has also attracted much attention as it also excludes the organizations such as the International Red Cross access to the ICJ in helping to achieve world order. The ICJ consists of 15 judges elected for a 9 year term by the UN General Assembly and Security Council. The work of the Court has had to reflect the main forms of civilisation and the principal legal system of the world. An ineffectiveness of the ICJ is that a nation cannot be compelled to appear before the court therefore its enforceability and accessibility is limited. However the effectiveness of the law in achieving justice for the individual includes the establishment of the International Criminal Court in accordance to Article 8 of the Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court (Statue). The Rome Statue gave the ICC jurisdiction over a wide range of war crimes committed during international armed conflicts. The ICC’s role in protecting individuals is through it’s ability to prosecute people accused of grave breaches in the Geneva Conventions of 1949- these individuals include: wounded or shipwrecked soldiers (protected by the 1st and 2nd Geneva Convention), prisoners of war (POW) (3rd Geneva Convention) and civilians (4th Geneva Convention) in occupied territories. The ICC protects these individuals by being able to persecute those who: commit wilful killing, torture or commit inhuman treatment such as biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or health and other crimes against humanity. The ICC also has jurisdiction to prosecute any person who use: prohibited attacks on civilians, harm to defenceless persons such as killing or wounding soldiers who have surrendered, certain prohibited methods of warfare such as the misuse of a flag of truce and certain prohibited acts in occupied territory or against nationals including the transfer, directly or indirectly, by the occupier of parts of its own civilians population into the territory. With the growing numbers of crimes against humanity such as genocide, the law has responded to the change of the nature of these crimes such as the recognition that rape now constitute as genocide. This was through the landmark Akayesu case in 1998 where a Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda held that when rape was used a method to destroy a protected group by causing serious bodily or mental harm to the members of the group it constituted genocide. By this the law has show it effectiveness in achieving justice through its ability to respond to changes. International Law also protects the rights of individuals by ensuring justice for victims of war crimes. The ICC allows for victims to participate in the proceedings through contributions such as their views and concerns, it also ensures that victims and witnesses are protected mainly through the establishment of the Victims and Witness Unit in the ICC registry by Article 43 (6) of the Rome Statue. This unit provides protective measures such as security and counselling to victims and witness as well as their families who may be at risk because of their testimonial. Also victims are protected through reparations such as Article 75 (1) which established principles relating to compensation, and may order a convicted person to provide that reparation to the victims. Children as an individual are also protected by international law which ensures under Article 6 of the Rome Statue the definition of genocide to include â€Å"forcibly transferring children of the group to another group† if committed with the intention to destroy all or part of a national, ethical, racial or religious groups as such. Finally there is a range of UN bodies that are designed to protect the rights of individuals. However the committee structure of the UN has been widely criticised for being ineffective. Non government organizations have claimed that the committee lacks the necessary legal authority to bring governments or individuals to justice. One recent controversy in Aust. is the mandatory detention of asylum seekers while their claims for refugee status are processed by the Dept. of Immigration. The Howard Govt. onsidered these individuals to have broken Australian law by arriving in the country without a visa or travel documents, whereas international law seeks to remind Australia of the fundamental human rights of each refugee. The individuals in this case are not benefiting from this international pressure because international law and the UN have no enforcement powers. Amnesty International (an NGO) can speak out against the conditions in the detention centres but cannot force conditions to be changed. The effectiveness of the law in achieving justice for society can be accessed by the effectiveness of peacekeeping mission such as the Australian- led mission in East Timor or the ineffectiveness of the Uruguayan-led Peace Keeping mission in Congo. Since 1948 there have been 45 peacekeeping missions conducted by the UN, 2/3 of these conducted since 1991 (possibility because of the rise in guerrilla warfare). 29 missions have been successful (a 65% success rate), achieving all of its objectives. A peace keeping mission are outside of the UN budget and direct control, peacekeepers are placed under the command of a national defence forces. As well nations cannot be forced to commit troops to peacekeeping missions, instead the Secretary –General must request their assistance. This often creates strain in putting together a sufficiently large force. This highlights the inefficiency of resource efficiency by international law.