Palestina, erresilientzia (86) eta Alfred de Zayas

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Gogoratu ondoko hau: Pascal Lottaz eta ICJ delakoa

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Conversation with Alfred de Zayas, Building a Just World Order

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Join Professor Jeffrey Sachs and Dr. Alfred de Zayas as they discuss de Zayas’s book, Building a Just World Order which delves into the possibility of a democratic and equitable international order, essential for sustainable development and the welfare of future generations

Together, they explore the work of Dr. Alfred de Zayas, the first Independent Expert on a Democratic and Equitable International Order appointed by the UN. They discuss his 14 reports outlining 25 principles for a just global system, including reforms to the UN, human rights protections, and economic justice. Dr. Zayas addresses issues like UN Security Council reforms, the impact of World Bank and IMF policies, and critiques unilateral sanctions. He also advocates for the right to reliable information and accountability on indigenous rights, ecocide, and torture. Tune in for insights on these vital recommendations and the call for ethical politics and human rights.

Transkripzioa:

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welcome to book club with Jeffrey Sachs I’m absolutely thrilled and really

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delighted to have as our author today Alfred desas who is one of the world’s

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leading authorities on international law on human rights on the United Nations on

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Our Hope and this is the title of the book we’ll discuss today our hope for building a just World Order uh Alfred

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thank you so much for joining uh it’s really a a great pleasure and especially

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a privilege to have a chance to discuss your important work um and for people

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all over the world to understand what’s at stake when we talk about uh human

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rights when we talk about international law when we talk about the United Nations and we talk when we talk about

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the concept of building a just World Order now this book which is a really

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really important book so I recommend that everybody get a copy and study it

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it’s uh it’s something that you have to study at length uh and and in depth uh

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is a compendium of your remarkable a work over many many years but especially

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uh during a uh period in which you were the un independent expert for the Human

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Rights Council on the promotion of a democratic and Equitable International

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order and if I may say Alfred that’s quite an assignment you were given an assignment by the UN system to give a uh

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a charter on how to promote or how to create a democratic

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and Equitable International order I don’t know if anyone ever before you

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actually had that assignment n the philosopher Emanuel Kant took on that

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assignment in a way maybe the first one to do so systematically in 1795 but I don’t know if anyone ever had

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your assignment to produce this remarkable compendium of ideas and

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discussions that range from peace uh military expenditures the right of

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self-determination the right to truth many things that we’ll talk about so can

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you tell us a little bit about yourself how did you come to get such an incredible

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assignment well actually I was the third on the short

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list and it’s actually the US’s fault that I got all right how did that

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happen they knocked out the first two there was such a campaign against the first two that it just the uh president

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of the council L of pu said no who’s next Z okay I got it and imagine it was

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uh such a surprise to me because uh i’ had been in the uh Council the day

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before and there we are 23rd of March

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2012 I’m so sure that I’m not getting it that I accepted an invitation from our

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to uh give an interview on Iran and the nuclear program would never have done

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that uh if I thought I had a prayer and I come into the Human Rights Council in the afternoon and everybody Smiles at me

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and I say what the hell’s going on I’m just been appointed so uh as the case

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may be I took the ball and I ran with it I mean there’s no more beautiful mandate

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it’s like being uh named Secretary General but without the

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responsibilities of the Secretary General and being able to brainstorm being able to talk to everybody

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including yourself and and and John mimer and all of these greats whom I’ve

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always admired and by the way I’m also professor of international law and professor of History I did my law at

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Harvard I also did history at Harvard at the graduate school but I got my doctorate in history from gting in

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Germany and uh I’ve taught of both international law

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and um history at various universities and uh one of the books that I always

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give to my students is this one and

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uh all and another one that I give to my students is this one okay very good so

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we’re going to talk about both of those this one our dear friend on

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well uh the first thing I put up with uh

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Jeff’s the end of poverty the second one is John mimer of the great delusion and

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the third one is um Jimmy Carter’s Palestine peace not aarte three

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excellent books and uh in any event when I got the Mandate in

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2012 uh I had to present a report already in September 2012 so my

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preliminary report basically was laying down the framework this is what I intend

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to do so I didn’t do much of it uh in the first report I but Alfred before we

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get to that let me uh ask you to explain to everybody listening in what is the

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Human Rights Council how does it work and why would they appoint a uh an

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independent expert on on a theme like this well we we have uh a system what’s

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called special procedures of the human rights uh Council and that goes back actually to T F Boven and Kur herel uh

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the earlier directors of the division of Human Rights and the center for human rights which PR preceded the uh Human

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Rights Council myself um I was hired by Tay from Bowen in 1980 and I became the

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chief drafter for the United Nations human rights committee which is an

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expert body 18 experts most of them lawyers or judges uh who administer the

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international Covenant on civil and political rights that however is not the Human Rights Council the Human Rights

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Council is the successor of the commission on human rights you may

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remember the first president of the uh Commission on human was Elanor Rosevelt

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and the chief of the Secretariat at the time was the great uh professor John hungrey from McGill University in Canada

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I Lov that man he was fantastic as the case may be I had the honor to come in rather early into the system and made a

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career as a lawyer drafting for the human rights committee for the Committee

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Against torture for the committee on the elimination of gracial discriminations because they all had uh a uh petitions

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function that is as an individual you could after exhausting domestic remedies

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go to the human rights committee and the committee would issue a judgment and

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that of course is a juridical process to be

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differentiated from the commission on human rights and the Human Rights

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Council which are largely political and there’s so if I could just to clarify

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for myself to understand that the history elanar Roosevelt uh of course uh

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um remarkably led a commission to uh

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draft and have adopted the universal Declaration of Human Rights in

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1948 and that if I understand correctly is really the basis of all that

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followed it established the idea under the new United Nations which had come

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into being in 1945 that human rights would be a core

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pillar of the uh United Nations and of international law and the universal

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Declaration of civilization of civilization thank you what I want to

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see is the 21st century ReDiscover the

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spirituality of the universal Declaration of Human Rights it is a very

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spiritual document is very solidly based on world religions and is very solidly

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based on world philosophies and unfortunately we’ve been moving further

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and further away from that Spirit of 1948 I mean I have seen

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retrogression in uh human rights and I’ve seen retrogression in respect for

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international law and international order and that is what I tried to explain in 14 reports that I did for the

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general assembly and for the Human Rights Council and in uh more than 100 press releases that I issued between

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2012 and 2018 so is it right to say the universal

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declaration 1948 gave rise to what became a growing

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body of law in which you are certainly one of the world’s great authorities and

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practition ERS you helped to uh Implement that law during your period as

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a senior lawyer for the UN High Commissioner for human rights and then

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uh in 2006 the Human Rights Commission which Elena Roosevelt had been the first

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chair uh became the Human Rights Council an intergovernmental body of the United

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Nations to oversee human rights and in 2012 in this

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surprise moment for you you became the independent expert of the Human Rights

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Council but with this incredible assignment I mean honestly it is uh

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mouthwatering in how good it is and and that’s why your book is so good and important it is you were asked advise us

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on how the world should work to produce a democratic an equitable International

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order wow well I I certainly did My Level best and already in 2013 I gave

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the general assembly a taste of my ideas of reforming the United Nations uh as an

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organization and also reforming the secret uh the security Council and

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phasing out step by step uh the uh uh

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VTO power that’s article 27 well I want to get to that specifically because uh you start out as

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one of your earliest reports a really a remarkable document and I do compare it

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to Emanuel K’s 1795 essay on Perpetual peace where the

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great German philosopher laid out the ideas of how an international system

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could work I think other than maybe the Hebrew prophets the first one to have such a broad Vision

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but also such a yes exactly such a systematic Vision that was based on the

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idea of international law which barely existed after all I mean it didn’t even exist when when Kant had had the idea

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but now you are uh writing about uh A

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system that is taking shape and I I always feel Alfred and I’d like you know your view of it as you explained we’re

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in the early stages still of trying to make a system of international law by my

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count the formal attempt at a true

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International basis was the League of Nations very flawed during the high

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Imperial period so there was a imperialism was the norm not uh the the

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uh discredited exception um but we’re only a hundred years into this effort to

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create a true system of international law and what I loved is I think it must

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have been your second report it’s the second chapter of this book you lay out the principles of an international order

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and I wonder if you could just take us through some of the main principles that you see as foundational for creating

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creating a decent World well everybody knows the Peace of West

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failure as being a foundation for the international law that developed after

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that 1648 their motto was P Optima peace is the highest good so

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obviously the first principle that so just for everybody background end of the

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30 Years War 1648 Devastation of Europe in these bloody

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often religious space sometimes not religious-based Wars uh the war ends with a treaty of

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West filia 1648 and peace is after 30 years of mass Bloodshed the the highest

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virtue 8 million deaths and 8 million in uh the 17th century was a lot wow the

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case may be uh the United Nations Charter really the

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Alpha and Omega of the United Nations Charter is peace we have three pillars we have

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peace development and human rights but peace is the enabler you’re not going to

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have development without peace you’re not going to have human rights without peace so uh it’s clear that

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the purposes and principles of of the United Nations enunciated In Articles

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one and two focus on that and focus on prevention of conflict I mean one of the

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most important articles maybe more important than the prohibition of the use of force is the

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article on dialogue Article 2 paragraph 3 the obligation to settle all disputes by

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peaceful means and the United Nations Prov a forign when I was a young man in Chicago

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I was in high school in Chicago October

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1962 I had the shall we say the

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very great learning experience of watching uh ADL

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Stevenson uh ADL Stevenson the third uh debating uh Valentine Zoran on televis

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and the Soviet Ambassador at the time we were so close to armagedon we so close

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to Apocalypse in 1962 and thank God for the existence of this forum known of the

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United Nations and also the fact that we had a rational

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man in the white house we had John F Kennedy in the White House and uh who

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was not going to destroy the world over American Ed or over the idea of uh

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we don’t allow anyone to put uh missiles close to our border uh he realized that

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he had a responsibility Visa the entire world not only it was not a matter just between the United States and and the

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Soviet Union everybody was involved and that is the same situation we’re facing

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today again as you know I am a me member of the Geneva International Peace

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Research Institute and we do a lot of brainstorming on peace matters and we

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send them to our Swiss president I by the way I’m an American but I’m also

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Swiss uh to um uh Viola anver the

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president of Switzerland to um Ignat casis the foreign minister etc etc I’ve

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drafted a um uh blue blueprint for peace and you Ukraine which is based very much

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on the United Nations Charter and on the uh shall we say the supremacy course of

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the uh uh Clause of the UN Charter which is article 103 so the UN Charter trumps

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all other treaties including the Treaty of the North Atlantic uh uh Treaty

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Organization uh so NATO’s um activities must conform to the United

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Nations Charter so back to the 25 principles I consider principle 10 to be

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very important which is the principle uh that the realization of

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self-determination is a conflict prevention

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strategy uh you have to have early warning you have to listen to grievances

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before they Fester before they uh develop into a violent outbreak so

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that’s why self-determination for the Palestinians

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self-determination for the Kurds self-determination

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for the Russians of Crimea for the Russians of of the dbos¹ all that could

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and should have been uh the subject of referenda organized by the United

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Nations monitored by the United Nations so they would have legitimacy and

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credibility but when uh after the Kura in maidan uh in

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2014 uh when the new P government uh

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started adopting uh rabidly R of

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legislation anti anti-russian legislation again that’s why uh self-determination for me the

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dispute uh in uh Ukraine has two sources

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one is of course National Security you need an architecture uh for all countries in

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Europe and in the world and secondly the self-determination of the people of Gia

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on stas only they should decide their fate it’s not for us to tell them that

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they belong here or there another principle principle 15 uh which is the

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principle of the right to your Homeland the right to your heritage your history

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your right to memory uh then of course I have a u an article on uh paa

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Sun the obligation to observe treaties I

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mean uh you will recall the Trump Years and

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we’re likely to get another set of Trum but in any event you may recall how he

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just simply stepped out of all sorts of treaties again uh the international

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order can only function if everybody plays for the games and uh and one of

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the rules is B article 26 of the Vienna convention on the law of treaties but

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going back to my 25 principles it’s a compendium which uh the then president

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of the general assembly uh Maria Fernand Espinosa

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called Magna Carta for the 21st century as Cas may be uh I’m not Reinventing the

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wheel I mean I am basing my Prin principles on the UN Charter on Security

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Council and general assembly resolutions on um uh the treaties that have emerged

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since then I mean the uh United Nations the international law commission uh have done a phenomenal job

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of standard setting in all fields of human activity also uh the office of the

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High Commissioner for human rights the Human Rights Council you I mean out of this uh

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rustian um Universal Declaration of Human Rights uh we have uh 10 core

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treaties that emerg uh from that besides all of the uh declarations and all of

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the uh um uh resolutions adopted which are soft law they not treaties yet but

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uh they will be coming before the uh uh uh general assembly for for adoption in

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in treaty form there several of these uh declarations are now before uh the

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general assembly and there’s uh one declaration that I particularly like which was drafted at the time by

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Virginia danan from the Philippines she was the rapporter on International solidarity the right to International

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solidarity that has been worked by uh her successors and it’s now ready

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actually for adoption and the new um raor on International solidarity Cecilia

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baray from Argentina she has sent it on uh to the general assembly so there’s

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things moving I mean uh I must say even though uh there are problems with the

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office of the High Commissioner for human rights problems of double standards problems of selectivity there

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have problems with the Human Rights Council I’m very happy that we have them both huh if we didn’t have them we would

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have to invent them uh they are essential but we want to strengthen them

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we want to make sure uh that there is transparency and accountability and that

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is not always the case so that is for just just to I want to come back to your

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principles first uh really to underscore uh 25 principles that you built up on

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the basis of international law the UN Charter treaties so these are not your

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inventions they are the guideposts that actually in in our better moments the

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world’s governments have said should guide us uh and uh have been adopted in

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many ways in UN General Assembly resolutions or embodied in the UN

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Charter or part of international legal judgments and so on one for example uh

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very important one that I want to come back to your point 18 the principle of

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nonintervention uh that it is a duty of countries not to intervene in the

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internal affairs of other countries like overthrowing their governments or doing other things to uh to destabilize other

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countries uh and as you’ve already discussed your point 17 states have a

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positive duty to negotiate uh so when we a failure of negotiation right now

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that’s not only bad behavior that leads to war it’s a violation international law it’s a

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violation of the responsibility of governments it’s a violation of the international uh of the

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UN Charter so I think these 25 normative points are extremely important uh I’m so

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happy to hear uh the praise that uh former Secretary General Maria Fernandez

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Spinosa gave to them she’s wonderful and and so her praise is extremely important

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uh but calling them the the Magna Carta for the International System is is a

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wonderful point now uh Alfred all through your book as you elaborate on

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these points you raise the questions of obstacles we are not living in this

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system uh we are not uh seeing uh the US negotiate with Russia uh even though

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we’re at a brink of uh even nuclear war between the countries we are not seeing

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uh Israel negotiate with the Palestinian people exactly the opposite there are

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obstacles everywhere you have been in this system of trying not only to design

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what should be done but actually put it into application uh to use law not only

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as a a normative statement of what a a uh just world would be but actually as

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an instrument to uh make Behavior conform with these principles so

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obstacles why are we in the midst of War why is the UN system so difficult uh to

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actually um Implement and enforce its own Charter uh why to put it in the most

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uh dire and awful way are we even watching a genocide unfold before our

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eyes have un Security Council resolutions adopted for immediate

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ceasefires and so on and yet uh it it it

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seems to put it uh harshly like a sideshow to what the real powers do and

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so you’ve been observing this uh for for many decades very close up what can you

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tell us about these obstacles well we are indeed witnessing a

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rebellion against the United Nations Charter Rebellion against international

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law and the Rebellion is being led by the United States and by NATO countries

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it is uh really for me as an American for me as a European it hurts to see

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this happen because I want to believe and I want my student to believe in the

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system and when the system betrays you when the system does not do what what it

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must do to save lives uh people lose

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trust in the institutions and we need the institution I wrote an article for

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the American Journal of um economics and sociology under the title quis custodia

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iOS custodes the famous question of juvenalis in his Sati

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six uh versus 347 and 348 uh which is

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who will guard over the Guardians when the Guardians betray you

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I mean only you yourself you must take the responsibility yourself because the

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institutions are not doing what they were made to do why are they not doing

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it of course there are tremendous economic interests uh there is a war industry is the only people who are

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making a profit these days if you have invested in raon or in lock locky Mark

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nor boing and so uh so U and and by the way incidentally you may not have seen

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it but just in the days in which we’re talking Senator Lindsay Graham who is

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one of the crassest politicians in America made a statement uh that we must

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continue the war in Ukraine because there are trillions of dollars of mineral resources there that otherwise

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will fall into the hands of the Russians and the Chinese this is about about money who will control these resources

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rather shocking statement thing to say it that clearly but of course uh he’s a

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fire brand he’s always been a fire brand I know him for the nonsense that comes out of his mouth so I’m not surprised

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that lindsy Graham is capable of saying something that obscene that vulgar but I

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mean we did the same thing in um Iraq we destroyed Iraq because of the oil we

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destroyed Libya because of the oil and we wanted to control we didn’t want to

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have Sadam Hussein who did his own thing or we didn’t have uh muar Gaddafi who

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did his thing he had to take orders from Washington and if he didn’t no we

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destroy him and uh ultimately it is money ultimately and money of course is

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power and uh going back to the obstacles the major obstacle that I see

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today uh is the information war or rather the disinformation War I mean the

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vast majority of the American people they’re not for war they don’t want any

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of this they want better schools they want better uh Health Care they want better infrastructure brid bridges that

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don’t fall into the Mississippi they don’t want to spend uh 78 trillion dollar for useless Wars totally useless

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and that money is is needed elsewhere uh but if you are subjected

31:33

to brainwashing nonstop Bu The New York Times Washington

31:40

Post CNN Wall Street Journal uh and of course all of the smaller uh newspapers

31:47

throughout the country pick up their news from Reuters and AP and I myself

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had had bad experiences uh with Reuters giving interviews to writers and then seeing my um

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statements uh shall we say doctored and um if that’s the only source of

32:09

information that you have you are being manipulated badly and uh not everybody

32:16

has the time I mean you’re married you have kids you can’t be just surfing the

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internet and trying to hear the real News Network or Amy Goodman

32:28

or Max blal or Aaron mate you don’t have the time for that I do but uh the masses

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don’t so in a democratic uh system uh democracy breaks

32:44

down is dysfunctional because the population has been

32:50

misinformed and uh obviously ninjer reaction Putin bad uh he bad you know we

32:57

have a culture of hatred I would even say we must have an enemy we must Focus

33:04

all of our hatred against the Russians or against the Chinese or against

33:10

somebody else against the Venezuelans against muru against Diaz canel against

33:15

Daniel Ortega we must have enemies and people just regurgitate what they hear

33:22

as I say what is freedom of expression freedom of expression is meaning

33:27

meaningless is all that that means is that you can Echo whatever nonsense you heard last night in CNN I mean freedom

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of expression presupposes access to all the

33:40

information the opportunity to make up your own mind and then that is the

33:45

opinion whose expression is protected in Article 19 of the Covenant on civil and

33:52

political rights and by the way there again we are uh there’s what I call an

33:59

epistemological trap and that is already built in the system everybody every

34:06

professor of Human Rights tells you that human rights are divided into uh rights

34:11

of the first generation rights of the second generation rights of the third generation meaning civil and political

34:18

first generation all those are the only important ones uh economic social and cultural well these are secondary rights

34:26

maybe someday and uh right to peace or right for the environment or something like that

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that’s that’s just delusional that is third generation rights so you see that it’s already built in with a Prejudice

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in favor say of the right to property uh the right uh to

34:46

control whereas um in building a just world order in the last chapter I

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formulate uh an alternative functional paradigm of Human Rights it’s very

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interesting by the way I mean what what you’re saying and I think some perspective uh from an American point of

35:07

view is is really useful you say that the US is rebelling against the UN and I

35:14

agree completely uh this is the the great disaster and great irony of an

35:20

institution that largely was created by the United n by the United States uh in

35:27

uh by Franklin Roosevelt and by

35:32

Roosevelt so Franklin Roosevelt conceived the idea of the United Nations

35:38

already in the middle of World War II put uh his team and the International

35:44

System to work to build a United Nation so uh a lot of credit to the US under

35:52

Roosevelt in 1945 and to Elanor Roosevelt in 1948 for putting in the

35:58

fundamental pillars but now the US does not abide by uh the UN system does not

36:06

respect the UN General Assembly votes uses its unilateral veto repeatedly

36:13

against what is clearly the will of the International System and you’re

36:20

emphasizing another very uh important point which is that under

36:28

Roosevelt he had the idea perhaps unique among American presidents that economic

36:35

rights were as core to human rights as political and civil rights and in 1944

36:42

he proposed an economic Bill of Rights for the American people this was very

36:49

radical for a country that was founded on private property and wealth as the

36:55

highest calling not on fairness and justice but Roosevelt wanted a to

37:02

recognize economic rights as fundamental and what’s important for

37:08

people to understand is if you go back and I encourage everyone as you read

37:14

Alfred dias’s remarkable book building a just World Order have the universal

37:20

Declaration of Human Rights at your side because the economic rights are not

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subsidiary they’re absolutely core they’re they’re not something that comes later or a nice thing to have or a

37:35

second dimension the right to social protection to education to health care

37:41

to a decent life is is completely embedded in this and the us then even

37:48

already in the 1960s rebelled against that idea by not by not adopting the

37:54

Covenant uh on economic social and cultural rights no no it’s shocking because after

38:01

such a great beginning and after the inspiration that went into uh the

38:08

creation of the United Nations uh the United Nations Charter and then the uh

38:14

uh Universal Declaration of Human Rights and this fantastic body of uh

38:19

legislation that was adopted in those uh years unfortunately uh we believe believe

38:28

really in exceptionalism that we are essentially above international law we determine

38:35

international law and that is what Anthony blinkin is reminding us with his

38:41

famous uh rules-based International order and uh I’ve already said look Tony

38:48

For Heaven’s Sake we already have a rules-based international order and that’s the United Nations Charter

38:56

exactly president you’re not observing it I mean stick to it and

39:03

um there’s so many things there’s so many good people in the United States so

39:08

many good academics so many good professors throughout the country why is

39:14

it that you Jeffrey sxs are not our secretary of state why right it you know

39:22

why don’t we have someone with vision and as I said my worry and it’s your and

39:27

we share this uh admiration uh for uh John F Kennedy and I think for your

39:34

listeners they probably heard it from your mouth many times but it’s so important and it’s so acute today that I

39:44

will read from Kennedy’s 10 June uh

39:49

Speech while defending our own vital interests nuclear Powers must avert

39:57

those confrontations which bring an adversary to a choice of either a

40:02

humiliating Retreat or a nuclear war to adopt that kind of a course in the

40:09

nuclear age would be evidence only of the bankruptcy of our policy or of a

40:16

collective Death Wish for the world no one has said it better than that and it

40:21

just uh it’s important every student should read that uh commencement speech

40:28

of 10 uh June uh two uh 1963 uh 6 months before he was murdered

40:36

uh as the case may be uh P optimar we have have to do everything for

40:44

facilitating negotiation in the Ukraine and facilitating negotiation in Gaza uh

40:52

for that of course you need good faith you need uh good will political will

40:58

which unfortunately is missing in Washington and is missing uh in in

41:05

Israel now I find that uh disregarding not one but three

41:13

orders uh of the international uh court of justice uh in uh the case South

41:20

Africa against Israel that is pretty shocking and disregarding them in total

41:26

impunity is even more shocking what can you do against it I have written to various

41:34

politicians and ambassadors and said you know I cannot do that in the general

41:39

assembly but you can uh you can propose to do what the general assembly did in

41:47

1974 uh take away the vote from uh Israel disregard their credentials adopt

41:56

the resolution as in the case of a partti that South Africa cannot speak in

42:02

the general assembly that would be such a diplomatic blow against uh Israel and

42:08

then if that’s followed up by uh States uh terminating their commercial

42:15

relations uh with Israel and I’m not saying uh two or three states I’m

42:20

talking about 50 or 100 states that say we are witnessing genocide we will not

42:26

tolerate this and we will not do business with you and uh in other words

42:31

in other words there are practical things that should follow up after the international court of justice has made

42:37

several rulings and then they are disregarded by Israel something can be

42:43

done about it with the complicity of the United States with the complicity of the United States the Geneva International

42:51

Peace Research Institute uh we presented on the 25th

42:57

of May two weeks ago uh in the hate uh a legal grief 29 Pages uh against urula

43:07

ferion for the crime of complicity complicity in

43:14

providing military economic political financial

43:20

propagandistic support uh to Israel and making it shall we say palatable making

43:26

it plausible uh that genocide can continue and uh this is the first case

43:33

of complicity being uh submitted to the IC

43:38

a case of complicity under article 3E of the genocide convention was presented by

43:47

Nicaragua against um Germany and uh the international

43:54

court of justice CED out did not issue the order of interim measures of

44:01

protection that had been requested I think that the uh Court was wrong in not

44:06

doing it the court had an obligation to issue an order uh to tell uh uh

44:14

Germany out of the question you cannot cooperate militarily with um uh

44:23

Israel number one and number two the weapons that you delivered to Israel

44:29

before make sure that those weapons are not used for genocide or you are

44:35

yourself uh complicit in uh in this General site the court didn’t say that

44:40

the case is still pending huh I mean the decision on complicity pursuant to

44:47

article 3E of the um uh genocide convention will still be decided upon

44:54

but you needed immediate help and this immediate help uh was not provided and

45:00

so just to to to bring us uh um especially for people listening in one

45:06

thing I would like them to to understand in all of this context is that there’s a tremendous amount of Machinery of law

45:15

the international court of justice the UN Charter the treaties uh and so forth

45:22

that give a framework for Action uh there is the US Security Council and its

45:29

resolutions but what we are seeing in many cases is uh not that these

45:36

institutions don’t exist or that uh countries are abusing gaps in the law

45:44

but rather the failure to enforce mechanisms that have been put in place

45:50

that are in place that judgments are made that ceasefires are demanded or

45:57

other kinds of actions demanded to be in compliance with the 1948 genocide

46:02

convention so that Israel stops the mass mass killings but these then are not

46:08

enforced by the the great powers and to

46:13

come back to your your Charter your Magna Carta for the world

46:19

uh you’ve explained peace above all duty to

46:25

negotiate uh the uh noninterference doctrine that

46:30

major countries or countries are not to interfere in the internal affairs of uh

46:37

other countries uh that they are to abide by the spirit of the law that they

46:42

have set themselves and you have explained that we are living in a period

46:50

of impunity perhaps LED I agree with you

46:55

by the country that perhaps did most uh 75 years ago to get

47:01

things started the United States uh but now it because of its idea of

47:08

exceptionalism or its unwillingness to be constrained by international law uh

47:14

runs roughshod over all of this now we are heading to an important Summit at

47:21

the UN in September we hope it’s important uh it will be a summit of the

47:28

future a very unusual meeting called first by un Secretary General Antonio

47:35

gutterz and then supported by the UN General Assembly and now in the midst of

47:40

negotiation but the idea is that roughly 3/4 of a century since the start of

47:47

international law under the UN Charter and roughly 3/4 of a century remaining

47:53

in the 21st century uh where are are we going with this multilateralism how do

47:59

we get it back on track how do we stop the drift towards complete disaster or

48:07

collapse of international institutions because of the impunity of one or a few

48:13

uh big Powers so uh since you are our guide what is the answer Alfred how do

48:20

we get back on track and uh of your Charter and your extreme ly important

48:28

and cogent uh recommendations throughout how would you like to see us proceed to

48:37

bring all of the major powers back under the authority of international law and

48:42

make the UN itself more effective for the balance of this Century the 3/4s of

48:50

the century uh of the 21st century ahead of us well we need more people like you

48:58

Jeff and we need more people like John mimer and more people like uh Richard

49:03

folk if you were running uh the politics

49:09

of the state department we would not be in this mess today and uh my concern is

49:16

uh as you said it The credibility of the institutions The credibility of uh

49:23

international law we cannot afford to to slip down into the so-called law of the

49:31

Jungle we must have rules that everybody accepts and the only rules that

49:38

everybody accepted at one point or another was the United Nations Charter

49:43

so that remains our world Constitution but a world Constitution without

49:50

enforcement mechanisms that’s where we have to work developing enforcement

49:56

mechanis and also expanding and strengthening uh

50:02

the international courts and tribunals I very much believe in the importance of

50:10

having an interamerican Court of Human Rights European Court of Human Rights and African Court of human and people’s

50:17

rights uh it is crucial to channel everything into law I mean uh we have

50:26

the legislation and uh countries must come to understand that uh for local

50:34

Regional and International Peace you have to play by the rules we however in

50:41

the west uh have a culture of cheating I wrote in counter punch uh one

50:49

of my essays was on the culture of cheating and that exactly what we did in

50:55

Minsk we wouldn’t have the war in in Ukraine if angelan Mero from Germany and

51:02

franois Oland from France had entered into this mins agreements in good faith

51:09

intending to ensure its uh implementation where just to remind

51:14

everybody just an interjection after the kudeta in Ukraine in 2014 in which

51:23

unfortunately the US and Europe participated uh perhaps LED uh and a war broke out in

51:31

Ukraine already 10 years ago uh agreements were reached to end the war

51:37

Minsk one and Minsk 2 and in particular the Minsk 2 agreement was uh backed by

51:43

the UN Security Council and the guarantors were to be France and Germany

51:50

and Alfred is referring to the fact that not only were they not guarantors they treated the agreement

51:57

that they were to guarantee with the kind of cynicism and contempt we learned

52:02

afterwards even Chancellor Angela Merkel said in an interview after the fact that

52:08

oh yes that was just a holding pattern for Ukraine to gain its military

52:14

strength uh instead of enforcing a law it was a kind of prevarication so this

52:21

is what you’re referring to exactly and that’s not the only time that uh we have

52:27

uh cheated and I put yourself in uh the position of Putin or for that matter any

52:37

Uh Russian president had it been Med had been anybody else in uh uh and the

52:46

Kremlin uh if you enter into a treaty like that and then you participate

52:53

during eight long years in all sorts of

52:59

uh dialogues uh the so-called Normandy

53:04

format uh and uh the OSD and the EU format there’s so many conferences in

53:12

which uh Putin participated trying to have implementation of the minks

53:19

agreements now in the end Putin felt that he had been taken

53:25

for a run and I think in international Affairs it is

53:32

very it’s very counterproductive uh to take a major uh

53:38

adversary for a r because he’s not going to forgive you he’s actually going to act against your interests and uh it was

53:47

a huge mistake as uh George F Kenan uh wrote uh on the 5th of February

53:56

uh uh 1997 uh in his famous article in the uh

54:01

New York Times it’s a fatal error it’s a fatal miscalculation to have NATO expand

54:10

eastwards contrary to the assurances given by George H W bush and James Baker

54:18

to gorbachov at the time I mean these in other words another another part of the culture of cheating yeah and um to do

54:27

what you can get away with or think you can get away with the the mass of the American people are unaware of that and

54:34

when uh you or mimer or Richard folk or

54:39

myself say something like that then uh we are Putin’s puppets we are

54:46

disseminating uh uh Russian propaganda For Heaven’s Sake read it and uh read

54:53

also uh the uh treaties that la the uh uh Russian foreign minister put

54:59

on the table uh in December of 2021 two months before the outbreak of

55:07

the war these two treaties between Russia and NATO and Russia and the United

55:14

States are could have avoided all of it eminently well grounded on international

55:22

law on uh the United Nations Charter uh on principles of um um General uh

55:33

security for all countries and uh the fact that they were dismissed even with

55:40

contempt by uh Jen stoltenberg I mean he Bears a huge

55:46

responsibility uh for this let let me uh we were running towards the end of our

55:51

hour sad to say because we could talk about all of these themes for many hours

55:57

indeed you have emphasized a duty to negotiate which we are not fulfilling

56:04

you’ve emphasized the need for enforcement mechanisms which are plainly

56:10

still lacking you’ve emphasized and underscored the need for courts uh and juridical processes to

56:19

uh be present and to be venues for uh enforcement of international law you’ve

56:27

emphasized overcoming the culture of cheating there’s one more recommendation

56:33

I just want very briefly to discuss and that’s your call early on a decade ago

56:38

for a un parliamentary assembly if you would just say a word about that I would be grateful well uh the Parliamentary

56:46

assembly uh is a very good idea it’s been around for more than 40 years been endorsed by uh uh Secretary General brus

56:54

pus G by many many many very intelligent people I mean the idea to have a far

57:02

more representative uh assembly which would not have at least not at the beginning

57:09

would not have um legislative powers it would be an advisory body that could

57:17

advise uh the general assembly be parallel to the uh General Assembly uh I

57:24

know all the uh leaders of this movement and um I mean also the world Federalists

57:32

are very much behind uh this idea of a world parliamentary assembly or some

57:38

people call it United Nations parliamentary assembly but uh What uh

57:44

this idea uh encompasses is uh a

57:51

democratic uh commitment to listen to

57:56

people because I find myself in the United States totally

58:03

disenfranchised I mean whether I vote Democratic or republican I am going to

58:10

get exactly the same thing I’m going to get a uh warmonger I’m going to get

58:15

someone for the military industrial complex someone for Wall Street and not

58:21

for Main Street someone uh who just wants uh to make the Rich richer and

58:28

forget the mass of of the population I

58:33

see myself may he voting for Cornell West or voting for Jill Stein I have

58:39

quite a bit of sympathy uh for Jill Stein and I have a lot of sympathy for Robert F Kennedy Jr except that uh he’s

58:47

not doesn’t share my analysis of the problem uh in Gaza and I mean Gaza

58:54

didn’t start on the 7th of October 2023 Gaza started uh with the nakba with

59:01

the ethnic cleansing 1948 7 and 48 so the the assembly would be the place to

59:08

hear these voices worldwide I think they would have a much greater hearing and

59:14

then we need the media we need uh true

59:21

journalists like uh Julian Assange we need uh

59:26

um uh journalists who are not going to be uh the uh attack dog of the Pentagon

59:36

or the attack dog o of the state department who are going to be the Watchdog of our rights and uh by the way

59:45

my uh as you have said the the human right to truth as my uh

59:53

second countering uh mainstream narratives I dedicated it uh

1:00:00

to Julian Assange and to Edward Snowden and the third book in the trilogy which

1:00:06

came out last year uh the human rights industry I dedicated it to 30 other

1:00:13

whistleblowers because I consider whistleblowers uh to be eminent really

1:00:18

eminent human rights Defenders one more word that I wanted to have because uh

1:00:24

you know I’m a practicing Catholic and and um I had several masses read uh for

1:00:29

the soul of uh Aon Bushnell I mean few things have uh shocked me moved me

1:00:37

saddened me as much as seeing a 25 year uh old man young man us Airman uh self

1:00:44

immolate himself uh in front of the uh Israeli Embassy and and his wor saying I

1:00:51

know that the pain will be excruciating uh but what the Ians are suffering is so much worse that this

1:00:59

might actually open some people’s eyes uh to the suffering of uh the

1:01:04

Palestinians of course the Israelis have suffered a great deal and but what we need is an immediate ceasefire an

1:01:12

immediate ceasefire and end of this just swart her and then sit down and try to

1:01:19

reach a uh uh a mod vendi uh I

1:01:26

had the privilege of knowing Jimmy Carter and I love this book of Jimmy Carter we can have peace in the holy

1:01:33

land and I also love this other book of his uh if I find that it’s uh uh

1:01:40

Palestine peace uh not a partite I mean peace is

1:01:46

possible yes and Alfred I I want to say not only is

1:01:54

peace possible you’re you’re opening our eyes uh on the ways to achieve it um we

1:02:01

have run out of uh our our hour our precious uh time together I think all

1:02:07

listeners can know that we we touched on the first book of a Trilogy uh the first

1:02:14

book building a just world order it’s it’s a remarkable book it’s the uh

1:02:20

collection of wisdom of Alfred desas in his

1:02:26

role as uh the un independent expert on

1:02:31

the promotion of a democratic and Equitable International order uh we’ve heard it described as the Magna Carta

1:02:39

for our time uh of how the international order can function we are on our way

1:02:46

shortly in uh September 2223 to the summit of the future you

1:02:53

have given us a crucial uh ideas for how we can upgrade a system we depend on for

1:03:03

our survival the UN based system and the UN Charter the constitution of our time

1:03:08

we’re absolutely grateful to you Alfred desas for all of your uh ongoing

1:03:14

magnificent contributions and for uh spending the hour with us together on

1:03:20

book club with Jeffrey Sachs thanks to everybody for listening in and uh again

1:03:26

thank you to Alfred desas and thanks to you Jeff

oooooo

A Culture of Cheating: On the Origins of the Crisis in Ukraine

by Alfred de Zayas

(https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/01/28/a-culture-of-cheating-on-the-origins-of-the-crisis-in-ukraine/)

The current tensions between the United States and Russia with regard to Ukraine goes back to a series of NATO actions and omissions following the demise of the Soviet Union in 1989/91.  On the Russian side there is a widespread perception of having been mislead by the US and NATO, a pervasive malaise about a breach of trust, a violation of a “gentleman’s agreement” on fundamental issues of national security.

While the US protests that it never gave assurances to Gorbachev that NATO would not expand eastwards, declassified documents prove otherwise.  But even in the absence of declassified documents and contemporary statements by political leaders in 1989/91 including Secretary of Sate James Baker and German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher (which can be consulted in YouTube), it is all-too-obvious that there is a festering wound caused by NATO’s eastward expansion over the past 30 years, which undoubtedly has negatively impacted Russia’s sense of security. No country likes to be encircled, and common sense should tell us that maybe we should not be provoking another nuclear power.  At the very least, NATO’s provocations are unwise, at worst they could spell Apocalypse.

We in the West play innocent, and retreat into “positivism”, asserting that there was no signed treaty commitment, that the assurances were not written in stone.  Yet, Realpolitik tells us that if one side breaks its word, or is perceived as having double-crossed the other side, if it acts in a manner contrary to the spirit of an agreement and to the overriding principle of good faith (bona fide), there are political consequences.

It seems, however, that we in the West have gotten so used to what I would call a “culture of cheating”, that we react surprised when another country does not simply accept that we cheated them in the past, and that notwithstanding this breach of trust, they should accept the “new normal” and resume “business as usual”, as if nothing had happened.  Our leaders in the US, UK, EU contend that they have a clean conscience and refuse to consider the fact that the other side does feel uncomfortable about having been taken for a ride.  A rational person, a fortiori a statesman, would pause and try to defuse the “misunderstanding”.  Yet, the US culture of cheating has become so second nature to us, that we do not even realize it when we are cheating someone else, and we seem incapable to understand that denying our actions and reneging on our words adds insult to injury.

The culture of cheating is family of the doctrine of “exceptionalism”. We self-rrighteously claim the right to cheat others, but others cannot cheat us. Quod licet Iovi non licet bovi (that which Jupiter can do is not permitted for the bovines). This constitutes a kind of predator behaviour that neither religion nor civilization has succeeded in eradicating. We mount false-flag operations and accuse the other side of the same. – and yet no one seems to be asking whether in the long run such behaviour is not counter-productive, whether our credibility is shot.

Perhaps one explanation for this kind of behaviour is that we have elevated the culture of cheating to a kind of secular virtue – equivalent to cunning, daring and boldness.  It is seen as a positive attribute when a leader is “craftier” and “sneakier” than his/her rival.  The name of the game is to score points in an atmosphere of perpetual competition, where there are no rules.  Our geopolitical competitors are just that – rivals – and there is no interest whatever in fraternizing with adversaries.  Cooperation is somehow perceived as “weak”, as “Un-American”.   “Dirty tricks” are not seen as dishonest, but as clever, even patriotic, because they are intended to advance the economic and political interests of our country. In a way, “dirty tricks” are perceived in a positive light as artful, ingenious, adventurous, even visionary. This curious approach to reality is facilitated by a compliant and complicit corporate media that does not call out our bluff and instead disseminates “fake news” and suppresses dissenting views.  Unless an individual has the presence of mind to do his/her own research and to access other sources of information, he/she is caught in the propaganda web.

The US government has practised this culture of cheating in its international relations for more than two hundred years, particularly in its dealings with the First Nations of the continent, who again and again were lied to, and whose lands and resources were shamelessly stolen.  As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his book Why we can’t Wait : “Or nation was born in genocide” (p. 120).  How many “Indian” Treaties were broken, again and again? And when the Sioux, Cree and Navajo protested, we massacred them.  See the studies of the UN Sub-Commission on Promotion and Protection of Human Rights.[1]

This “culture of cheating” can be documented countless times in connection with the Monroe Doctrine and US relations with Mexico, Latin America, Hawaii, the Philippines, etc.

One of the elements that is totally missing from the Ukraine debate is the right of self-determination of peoples. Undoubtedly the Russians in the Ukraine are not just a minority, but constitute a “people” — and as such the Russians in Donetsk, Lugansk and Crimea possess the right of self-determination. enshrined in the UN Charter and in Article 1 common to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Until the deliberately anti-Russian coup d’état of February 2014, the Ukrainians and Russian-Ukrainians had lived side by side in relative harmony.  Maidan brought with it russophobic elements that have since been exacerbated by the systematic war propaganda and incitement to hatred, both prohibited by article 20 of the ICCPR. Thus, it is not certain whether the Russians in the Donbass feel safe enough to want to continue living with Ukrainians who have been and are being incited to hatred against them. Back in March and June 1994 I monitored the parliamentary and presidential elections in the Ukraine as representative of the UN Secretary General.  I travelled around the country.  No doubt that the Russian-speakers had a profound sense of Russian identity.

There would be no conflict in Ukraine today if Barack Obama, Victoria Nuland and several European leaders had not destabilized the democratically elected government of Viktor Yanukovych and organized a vulgar coup d’état to install Western puppets.  Bottom line:  Western interference in the internal affairs of other States can backfire, and the culture of cheating and deceit that we continue to practice renders it impossible to reach sustainable solutions.  The UN Charter, the only existing “rules-based international order”, has the necessary mechanisms to resolve our differences on the basis of the principles of sovereign equality of States and the self-determination of peoples.

Notes.

[1] http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/demo/TreatiesStatesIndigenousPopulations_Martinez.pdf

https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Reassessing+the+paradigm+of+domestication%3a+the+problematic+of…-a0238269291. https://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IPeoples/EMRIP/Pages/Treaties-Constructive-Agreements.aspx

Alfred de Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. He is the author of twelve books including “Building a Just World Order” (2021) “Countering Mainstream Narratives” 2022, and “The Human Rights Industry” (Clarity Press, 2021).

oooooo

US Airman Aaron Bushnell’s Self-Immolation Outside the Israeli Embassy In Washington D.C.

by Alfred de Zayas

(https://www.counterpunch.org/2024/02/27/us-airman-aaron-bushnells-self-immolation-outside-the-israeli-embassy-in-washington-d-c/)

The live-streaming and subsequent videos of US active duty airman Aaron Bushnell’s extreme sacrifice in front of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C. on Sunday 25 February 2024 should make us reflect on the complicity of our governments in the on-going genocide being perpetrated by Israel on the hapless Palestinian people.  30,000 dead – overwhelmingly civilians, women and children.

The self-immolation brings back memories of the Vietnamese monks who self-immolated in the 1960s in protest against the oppressive Saigon government and the US aggression of their country. Further self-immolations took place in the United States, including on 16 March 1965, Alice Herz, an 82-year old peace activist, in front of the Federal Department Store in Detroit, Norman Morrison, a 31-year old Quaker pacifist, who poured kerosene over himself and set himself alight outside the Pentagon, and Robert LaPorte in front of the United Nations.

It reminds us of the Tunisian street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi who in 2010 self-immolated in protest against the police brutality of the Tunisian government, and whose sacrifice was the occasion that triggered what came to be known as the “Arab spring”, and which I consider more like a neo-colonial effort on the part of the US and Europe to cement their control in the MENA region. Of course, there were real home-grown grievances against authoritarian and corrupt governments, but the US-driven “colour revolutions” made a chill come over the region, an Arab winter with perpetual wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc.

Aaron Bushnell, a young man of 25 with all of his life before him, performed the ultimate protest to make the point against the indifference of the world in the face of the Israeli genocide in Gaza, a continuing tragedy which Professor Norman Finkelstein has documented in his comprehensive book GAZA[1] and in his numerous articles and television appearances.

On the video, minutes before setting himself ablaze, Bushnell said with a quiet, measured, resolute voice:  “I am about to engage in an extreme act of protest, but compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all.”  Bushnell was a respected and loved cyber defence operations specialist with the 531st intelligence support squadron at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.

In an interview with Newsweek Senator Bernie Sanders said “It’s obviously a terrible tragedy, but I think it speaks to the depths of despair that so many people are feeling now about the horrific humanitarian disaster taking place in Gaza, and I share those deep concerns…. The United States has got to stand up to Netanyahu and make sure this does not continue.”[2]

Yes, a genocide is unfolding before our eyes.  Articles 2 and 3 of the Genocide Convention are clearly engaged, and the issue of “intent” is overwhelmingly established in pages 57-69 of the legal brief submitted by South Africa to the ICJ.  On television and the internet we watch the bombardments of hospitals, schools, UN shelters.

While the entire world is clamouring for a cease-fire, the U.S. government abused the veto power in the Security Council three times to block the three draft resolutions on a cease-fire.  The United States and other countries that continue delivering lethal weapons to Israel, weapons that have been used and are being used to perpetrate the genocide, are complicit in genocide under article III e of the Convention.  Any state party to the Convention can refer the matter directly to the ICJ pursuant to article 9 of the Convention.  Accordingly, not only Israel, but also the US, UK, France and Germany should be on the dock[3].

On 26 January 2024 the International Court of Justice issued a comprehensive order of “provisional measures”[4] of protection, an injunction, which is legally binding under article 41 of the Statute of the ICJ, and which Israel has systematically violated, as it violated the ICJ’s earlier Advisory Opinion on the Wall, dated 9 July 2004[5].

On 16 February the ICJ published a decision on the South African second request for additional measures of protection:

“The Court notes that the most recent developments in the Gaza Strip, and in Rafah in particular, ‘would exponentially increase what is already a humanitarian nightmare with untold regional consequences’, as stated by the United Nations Secretary-General (Remarks to the General Assembly on priorities for 2024 (7 Feb. 2024)). This perilous situation demands immediate and effective implementation of the provisional measures indicated by the Court in its Order of 26 January 2024, which are applicable throughout the Gaza Strip, including in Rafah, and does not demand the indication of additional provisional measures. The Court emphasizes that the State of Israel remains bound to fully comply with its obligations under the Genocide Convention and with the said Order, including by ensuring the safety and security of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.”[6]

Notwithstanding the ICJ proceedings and the proceedings before the International Criminal Court, Israel’s onslaught on 2.3 million Palestinians continues.

While I understand Aaron Bushnell’s motivation and his noble hope that his self-immolation would make an impact on our politicians, I fear that the deep-seated cynicism in the US and Israeli governments and the cavalier attitude of the mainstream media will effectively give carte blanche to Biden and Netanyahu, who will continue ignoring all calls for a cease-fire and will very soon “cancel” the memory of Bushnell’s sacrifice.

In our modern world, Aaron Bushnell’s extreme protest appears to be anachronistic, from a distant bygone era.  We read about it, and it almost sounds like fiction.  It may not accomplish anything, because our politicians are committed to war – in Gaza as in Ukraine — no matter what the majority of the world thinks, no matter what the International Court of Justice will rule on the 1948 Genocide Convention and its concrete application in the case of the Gaza genocide.

It is rare to see someone today actually following his principles and going through to the ultimate (and excruciatingly painful) sacrifice.  In my opinion, and in that of many peace activists, it would have been more sensible to live for the cause of peace and not to die in protest against a criminal war.  Peace-making is work-in-progress, a daily commitment.

The deconstruction and desacralization of Western society have made gestures as Aaron Bushnell’s harder to relate to than in the past, because our society has lost its moral compass, its capacity for empathy. Indeed, Western society is impregnated with cynicism to such a degree that a sacrifice for a cause greater than oneself seems incomprehensible, a far harder concept to grasp intellectually — let alone feel — for modern rootless materialists.

Ms. Lupe Barboza of the Care Collective in Texas said that Bushnell had developed deep friendships with people living in encampments and would regularly purchase blankets, sweaters and snacks from a store on base to give out. In the days before his death, Bushnell wrote his will detailing his final wishes that he shared with close friends. “He took all the steps he needed to make sure that everything he had would be cared for, like his cat, he designated that to his neighbour. … So yeah, that to me is all the sense of someone who was measured and knew what he was doing.”[7]

I urge fellow Americans and the US military, especially Bushnell’s Air Force comrades,  to demand that the US government stop supplying arms to Israel immediately and that the US cease blocking the Security Council when a resolution is tabled by Algeria or any other country.

We know that the world stood and watched when Pol Pot massacred his own people in Cambodia in the 1970s, the world did nothing to stop the Rwandan genocide of 1994.  Today it is up to us to demand accountability.  We must all stand together against the genocide in Gaza.

And if we really mean it, we should also pray for the victims of this senseless slaughter in Gaza, we should pray for the soul of Senior Airman Bushnell.  I would like to see a bronze monument erected to him, exactly where he self-immolated himself.  His extreme sacrifice must not be forgotten.

As a practising Catholic, I will have Masses read for his soul.  I also extend my deepest sympathies to his family and friends.  God bless his soul.  Requiescat in pace.

Notes.

[1] https://www.normanfinkelstein.com/books/gaza-an-inquest-into-its-martyrdom/

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/bernie-sanders-breaks-silence-on-aaron-bushnell-self-immolation/ar-BB1iWaYf

[3] https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/documents/atrocity-crimes/Doc.1_Convention%20on%20the%20Prevention%20and%20Punishment%20of%20the%20Crime%20of%20Genocide.pdf?ref=readthemaple.com

[4] https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-sum-01-00-en.pdf

[5] https://www.icj-cij.org/case/131

[6] https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240216-pre-01-00-en.pdf

[7] https://www.npr.org/2024/02/25/1233810136/fire-man-israeli-embassy-washington

Alfred de Zayas is a law professor at the Geneva School of Diplomacy and served as a UN Independent Expert on International Order 2012-18. He is the author of twelve books including “Building a Just World Order” (2021) “Countering Mainstream Narratives” 2022, and “The Human Rights Industry” (Clarity Press, 2021).

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MMT: Modern Monetary Theory

1 What about the Basque Country?