France has proposed a debate at the United Nations about the future of humanitarian law during armed conflicts. Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, writes in his opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune that,
Compliance with international humanitarian law must be made the subject of depoliticized discussions at the United Nations, since such compliance is the duty of all, irrespective of the legitimacy of the military action undertaken by a specific state or armed group.
As he points out,
One of the essential principles of international humanitarian law is that a distinction must be made at all times and in all circumstances between combatants and non-combatants, along with its corollary: a distinction between military targets and civilian targets, the latter to be protected.
Kouchner adds that the credibility of the United Nations and of the Security Council in particular is at stake, since the aim of the UN is to guard international peace and security.
This is an expected proposal in the aftermath of the Gaza conflict in which both sides either used civilian areas to hide and launch attacks (often on civilian targets) or bombed schools and hospitals and murdered civilians and children.
The international humanitarian law is already there but hardly any country or group refers to it or respects it in time of armed conflicts.
At the same time, the realist politics in and around the UN often scrap the respect for humanitarian law from the agenda. Time and again, support for allies and protection of interests prevents states from doing something (anything) to stop the most gruesome atrocities committed against innocent people around the world.
Let's hope that this debate will take place and that something productive will come out of it.
Killing innocent civilians and children during armed conflicts, whoever and wherever the victims and perpetrators are, is a crime!
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Comments: 8
The UN cannot function as long as the U.S., China, and Russia hold the veto power that is as laughable now as it was when it was first developed to allow a few countries to dictate to the world.
The UN needs to reorganise and allow equal voting rights to all members or it may as well close its doors because it just spends billions of dollars and accomplishes nothing.
Until war crimes are prosecuted against any country committing them their will never be a rule of law.
In order to be able to begin to see the other ways we can deal with upwellings of poisonous fire-unconscious warmongering, we have to bring our leadership into a 50-50 female-male balance; and that 50-50 can NOT be all Caucasian, or even mostly Caucasian.
Then we'll be able to begin to comprehend the immense power of inner work, inner development, which leads to being able to overcome challenges of aggression with pure love. We CAN do this. There are just a few simple steps to take between our ridiculous and incredible current immaturity and the beautiful maturity we can achieve.
Human law often takes pains to justify that which is not justifiable, however - and there's the rub.
Again - without the balance of females, the male "rulership" tends to go rogue. Women and girls MUST take note of this, and go ahead with leadership training and experience, and take their rightful place as the balancers and harmonizers which can stay the flood of rogue male bloodlust.
While we're at it - another point where we can stop the rush of bloodlust and corporate enslavement of our soldiery: let's move to allow our military non-coms to unionize, like those in Holland, Norway, and Germany. Right now our non-coms are basically indentured servants, and that's a form of slavery. They MUST have their full rights restored, in order for us to move toward sanity as a nation.
It can't see that ever passing...
A person killed in armed conflict is not a murder it is collateral damage. It always happens and should be considered when one nation starts a war with another. It never is.
Leave it to the chicken-shit French to come up with something like this.
Trying to make such pointless laws is why the UN is so irrelevant. Kids are often in the ranks of 3d world nations and very often part of terrorist/guerrilla cells. The accidental deaths suck but as the Colonel notes, its part of war. The best that Western trained troops can try to do is to minimize it.
Trying to make such pointless laws is why the UN is so irrelevant. Kids are often in the ranks of 3d world nations and very often part of terrorist/guerrilla cells. The accidental deaths suck but as the Colonel notes, its part of war. The best that Western trained troops can try to do is to minimize it.
Oh and Carolion, that rap about NCOs being indentured servants. It hasn't been funny for a long time. Maybe if you knew a few or been one, you'd understand