"War is not nice."
- Barbara Bush
‘Diplomacy falling on deaf ears’ is the euphemism for International Law and its shaking knees. If international humanitarian law and international human rights law ever stood at all, it looks like it will not stand very long. Certainly, I am in no position to write a commentary on it. After all, the only international law encounter I have had is in sporadic moot court competitions and the only international law module I have taken in my years at law school is International Children’s Rights.
But, has international law got more right than I in the matter of time immemorial Jewish-Arab territorial aspirations? Europe in all its morality and purity has stood aside, refusing to form a united stand against or for the recent attacks at Gaza. Sarkozy and his French pride and arrogance flew in with his red cape for a peace mission he himself could not and probably did not count on. What use are repeated publications of statistics of fatalities and statements of ‘deep concern’ of statesmen who do no more than watch from afar?
One death is a tragedy. But, a situation like Gaza adds on only to a mountain of numbers of fatalities already recorded or under-recorded s. Those are simply statistics. And, statistics however staggering are distinctly separate from tragedies. Even the death of one Joker had the capacity to evoke more emotions. People mourn tragedies, not numbers. And, how have international law and the United Nations mourn the death of the thousands of casualties in Gaza? Simply by reciting out again and again and again that international peace and security, and justice should not be endangered.
When the League of Nations failed as the international governing body, our creativity came up with the United Nations. So, when the chanting of Article 2 of the UN Charter acts the lullaby which ‘falls on deaf ears’, is it a plea for us to replace the UN with a more effective international governing body? Gaza is one example, as was Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and a never ending list of international conflicts of territorial integrity. What the UN Charter has left out is not what hollow order or conceited security should be achieved, but rather a list (already known) of who are allowed to violate the sacred articles of the covenant without any international law sanctions imposed.
Or, do we lack a common enemy? There is no Hitler or his dancing Nazis and no Japanese bicycle invasion. And, when there is no focal point for similar or shared emotions, there is no effective opposition. So, when the European Union could not agree if they should call for humanitarian aid to be allowed into Gaza or if they should condemn the invasion altogether, they could not form an effective opposing stand. Because, America has a newly elected president and an ex-president who has the habit of choosing to violate Article 2 of the UN Charter at the twitch of this eye, she can only express a ‘deep concern.’ And, a ‘deep concern’ for what exactly ....?
Why had I not taken any international law modules? Because, international law is not law. If law is to govern human behaviour, or to impose a sense of structure and order, or if law is simply just black or white, international law is simply ... grey. And, it is a variation of shades of grey. Because, international law does not stand on its own. It is a documented list of ideals of statesmen who were a part of the party who break the very conventions they set up, supported by the belief in the ideals and crumbled (every time) by any one of the deadly sins. Because international is the law always standing on its shaking knees, and smiling with its clattering teeth.
[[ book ]] Milan Kundera - The Unbearable Lightness of Being