From the River to the Sea: Ibaitik Itsasora (104)

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July 2025 New Special: International Law à la carte

(https://dezayasalfred.wordpress.com/2025/07/04/july-2025-new-special-international-law-a-la-carte/)

International Law à la carte

Alfred de Zayas

This article was published in the July 2025 NewSpecial pp. 24-26: https://newspecial.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/WEB-RNS-MAG-JUIN-JUILLET-2025.pdf

Photo credit: New Special

International law cannot be applied selectively or à la carte, today this way, tomorrow differently or not at all.  In some cases, violations of international law are loudly denounced by the United Nations, by governments, by non-governmental organizations.  In other circumstances, comparable or even more serious violations of law are followed by deafening silence.  Indeed, the “crime of silence” implies tacit consent.  Qui tacet consentire videtur.  Individuals and States can thereby become complicit in the crime, if not legally, certainly morally.

Experience in the United Nations and elsewhere demonstrates that international law suffers from a severe case of double standards, both in its interpretation and application.  As a consequence, the authority and credibility of the institutions concerned continue to suffer an erosion of public trust. It will not be easy to regain the trust that has been lost.   

UN Charter binds all States and peoples.  International treaties, whether bilateral or multilateral, bind the States parties and should be applied in good faith according to the principle pacta sunt servanda (Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, article 26).  Whereas human rights are juridical, justiciable and, in principle, enforceable, the United Nations General Assembly and the Human Rights Council have a track record of applying international law in an egregiously selective manner.  This has been possible because of the complicity of the mainstream media that deliberately weaponizes human rights to demonize some countries while engaging in fulsome apologetics for the crimes of certain other countries. The debates in the GA and HR Council are characterized by political instrumentalization of the facts and by what I would call “fake law”, since many diplomats invent “the law” as they go along.  I repeat – we are not only facing a crisis of “fake news” and suppression of opposing narratives, we are in the quagmire of fake history and pseudo-legal narratives that may sound OK to the layman, but that even a first year law student would reject as political nonsense narrative.

If the “doctrine” of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) means anything (GA Resolution 60/1 of 24 October 2005, paragraphs 138-9), then it should have been invoked decades ago in the context of the Israeli denial of the right of self-determination of the Palestinian People, in the context of mass evictions, arrests, expulsions and ethnic cleansing, in the context of systematic humanilation and Apartheid policies against the native Palestinians.  R2P should have been invoked to demand the immediate implementation of the Advisory Opinions of the International Court of Justice of 9 July 2004 and 19 July 2024.

But not only in Israel, R2P should have invoked to protect the lives and properties of 140,000 Armenians of Nagorno Karabagh (Republic of Arttaskh) whose ancestors has lived there since millennia.  R2P could have prevented the massacres and ethnic cleansing unfolding there since 2020. Like the Israeli government, the Azerbaijani and Turkish governments have enjoyed impunity and an almost complete indifference from the international community and the media.

R2P should have been applied on behalf of the Sahraouis of Western Sahara, the Tamils of Sri Lanka, the Igbos and Ogonis of Nigeria, the Mapuche of Chile.  The jus cogens right of self-determination of peoples is granted to some, denied to others. 

Without a doubt, many politicians today deserve being indicted and prosecuted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Surely those guilty of the crimes of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Lybia and Syria.  Notwithstanding compelling legal briefs filed with the ICC Prosecutor since 2004, no one was ever indicted. An investigation started by Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda into US and NATO Crimes in Afghanistan was terminated by her successor Karim Khan.  Over a period of 23 years since its establishment in 2002, the ICC has displayed a certain bias, indicted Africans, and enemies of the US and EU including Vladimir Putin. That is why it was comparable to an earthquake when Prosecutor Khan asked for arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders.  This may eventually save the ICC.

A Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the issue of the self-determination of peoples would be appropriate, since the right of self-determination of peoples is jus cogens, and thousands of human beings in all continents are being denied this right and many killed in the process.  It must be well understood that the right of self-determination laid down in Articles 1 and 55 of the UN Charter, in Chapters XI and XII of the Charter, in common article 1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights is not limited to decolonization, but extends the rights to all peoples.  States are obliged to pro-actively implement this right.  Who are the rights holders?  As I proposed in my 2013 report to the General Assembly, the United Nations should accept petitions from all peoples deprived of self-determination, those living under foreign occupation, those enduring Apartheid, etc.  Among the many aspirants to self-determination, we recognize the French of Quebec, the Scots, the Catalans, the Corsicans, the South Tiroleans, the Kurds, the West Papuans, the Rapa Nui, the native population of Hawaii, the indigenous peoples of Alaska and those living in “reservations” ithe  in the United States.¹

Politicians have forgotten what the former Director-General of UNESCO, Federico Mayor Zaragoza, said at the 1999 UNESCO consultation in Barcelona, namely that the realization of the right of self-determination of peoples is an effective conflict-prevention strategy.  Indeed, so many wars since the 1945 had their origin in the unjust denial of this right.  The level of hypocrisy of politicians and media alike is frightening.  Hitherto the United Nations organs have failed to ensure that all peoples enjoy this right. And sometimes it seems like the United Nations has learned to live with endemic double standards. 

We must demand an end to these gross violations of human dignity and pave the way to reconstruction and reconciliation. Priorities are crucial in all human endeavors. What is on the agenda? What is being discussed, what is being deliberately ignored? Politics can and should be ethical, but most of the time it is amoral, short-sighted and falsely utilitarian. At least in democracies the electorate can demand ethics and justice, but the media will do its utmost to brainwash the public into believing fake news, fake history and fake law.

Progress and retrogression characterize the history of international law and human rights. Today the world is in chaos, but not more so than in the 18th. 19th and 20th centuries. At least we are not burning witches or massacring indigenous Hopi, Sioux and Tainos, Arawacs, Quechia — the slave trade is abolished, colonialism is drastically reduced. We have seen a phenomenal codification of legal norms, the UN Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Covenants, the establishment of regional human rights courts. We hail the growing recognition of the rights of half the population of the planet – women, the measures taken on behalf of persons with disabilities. We welcome the gradual abolition of the cruelty of “capital punishment”. Yet, there is also significant retrogression in many fields, including the erosion of the concept of Peace as a Human Right, the backsliding from General Assembly Resolution 39/11 of 1984. Today there is scarce protection of the right to know, the right to access truthful information, the right to freedom of opinion and expression. We see censorship by governments and the private sector, the blocking of RT and Sputnik by the EU, the Orwellian new Digital Services Act, the brazen indoctrination practiced by the media, the excesses of “cancel culture”, the epidemic of self-censorship, the social acceptance of Islamophobia, Russophobia and Sinophobia. the crimes committed against 25 million victims of human trafficking, including 3.4 million children. Serious retrogression is evident in the weakened protection of family life and family values, the attacks on the concept of the family and parental authority, the denigration and ridicule of religious beliefs.

Retrogression is also apparent in the practices of institutions established to protect our rights. Many institutions have been hijacked for geopolitical and ideological purposes. Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Iuvenalis, 6^th Satire, verses 347-48) Who guards over the guardians? Institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council, ECHR, IACHR, OPCW often let themselves be hijacked by major powers and thus betray their mandates, weaponizing human rights instead of devising preventive strategies and mechanisms to secure human dignity. Only we can be the guardians. While we realize that governments and the media lie to us on a daily basis, that they suppress crucial information we, as citizens of democratic countries, must push back and reclaim democracy. We do not need any Ministry of Truth as in 1984.  But are we not already in the dystopia of Huxley’s Brave New World ?

Among the gravest instances of retrogression is the obsession with punishment, that self-righteousness that invites us to lapidate the adulteress, the arrogance of “lawfare” against dissidents. If Christianity taught us anything, it is that we must forgive to be forgiven: et dimite nobis debita nostra sicut et nos dimitimus debitoribus nostris. Yet, the mainstream ngo’s have transformed “amnesty” into a curse word, as they have transformed “appeasement” into an insult, although in the nuclear are the only rational approach to conflict-prevention is confidence-building, engaging in dialogue, building bridges, creating the conditions for peace.  Si vis pacem, para pacem (if we want peace, we must create the conditions for peace and proactively appease). Amnesties are not bad per se. Sometimes amnesties can pave the way to reconciliation. Revenge is incompatible with the acquis of civilization. Punishment is not a wise or civilized answer to problems.  The ICC has a purpose, but wee must guard that it remains professional and that it does not replace the imperative of prevention by the false hope of “deterrence” and the toxic satisfaction of revenge instincts.

Knowledge of the root causes of conflict facilitates the prevention or war, the prevention of violations of human rights. We need to proactively wage peace, develop the faculty of self-criticism so as to correct our own mistakes before we go around pointing fingers at others.  We must practice international solidarity, applying international law in good faith and not à la carte.

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1 What about the Basque people, in the Western Pyrenees, betwen Spain and France. Did you forget us? On purpose?

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US, Germany responsible for Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza: Iran

(https://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2025/07/04/750560/US-Germany-responsible-Israel-Gaza-genocide-Iran)

Friday, 04 July 2025

Injured Palestinian children react as they arrive at a hospital following an Israeli strike in Gaza City on July 2, 2025. (Photo by AFP)

Iran’s Foreign Ministry has strongly condemned Israel’s escalating genocide in the Gaza Strip, holding the regime’s supporters, including the United States and Germany, responsible for the continued massacre of Palestinians.

The ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei made the remarks on Friday, a day after the Gaza Government Media Office said more than 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the last 48 hours.

Baghaei denounced the brutal killing of hundreds of defenseless Palestinians across the Gaza Strip in the past week, saying Israeli attacks on residential areas, refugee camps, shelters, and aid distribution site are “unprecedented war crimes.”

He also referred to the systematic strikes by the Zionist regime on shelters for displaced Palestinians such as the Mustafa Hafez school in Gaza City.

The United States, Germany, and other supporters of the occupying entity are behind the continuation of genocide and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip, he added.

Israel unleashed its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7, 2023, after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out its historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Tel Aviv regime has so far failed to achieve its declared objectives of eliminating Hamas and freeing captives in Gaza, despite killing 57,130 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injuring 135,173 others.

On Wednesday, all 15 Israeli ministers from the right-wing Likud party urged prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to annex the occupied West Bank before the end of the parliament’s summer session on July 27, citing support from US President Donald Trump.

Baghaei said the annexation call is a dangerous sign of Israel’s expansionism, calling for “urgent and serious” action by the international community and Islamic countries to support the Palestinian people and confront the colonial scheme aimed at eliminating Palestine as a nation and a historical and deep-rooted identity.

Meanwhile, the spokesman praised Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories, for making continuous efforts towards exposing the atrocious Israeli crimes and defending the rights of the oppressed Palestinians.

He further condemned mounting pressure from the United States and other supporters of the Zionist regime to silence the UN rapporteur.

‘Lucrative’ business deals help sustain Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza: UN expert

Francesca Albanese has named more than 60 major arms manufacturers and technology firms which are deeply involved in the Israeli campaign of genocide in Gaza.

In a speech to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on Thursday, Albanese called on countries to cut off all trade and financial ties with Israel and withdraw their sponsorship for an “economy of genocide”. She also presented her latest report, which named dozens of companies complicit in Israeli crimes against Palestinians.

The US has on several occasions called on the United Nations to remove Albanese over alleged “antisemitism”.

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