From: Kai Becker (kmb@kai-m-becker.de)
Date: Tue Jan 21 2003 - 01:28:51 MST
Am Montag, 20. Januar 2003 23:08 schrieb Lee Daniel Crocker:
> I think what John is expressing disdain for is the kind of
> international law exemplified by the UN, in which the sovereignty
> of dictators and tyrants is respected more than the human rights
> of the people they abuse, and with that I wholly concur.
PMJI, but IIRC the basic idea of the UN was not to implement an
instrument "to make them do like we want", but to have a common platform
(even if it's fragile) for politics and diplomats, to solve problems and
crisis possibly without wars.
The human rights charta is one of the major achievements of the UN, but
it will not be respected, until its promoters earn eough credibility by
acting along its base line. No government sees any value in respecting
human rights or international treaties, when the top politicians of the
leading nations don't.
IMHO, the necessary respect for the UN has been damaged by its top
members, e.g. by not paying their contributions, by supporting nations
that violate UN resolutions, by making dirty deals with dictators, by
canceling international treaties, etc.
It is not very plausible, when the US administration finds Iraq to be its
topmost enemy, while still supporting other regimes with equal
non-democratic, anti human rights governments. It is almost unbelievable
to declare a country that small, that far away, for which no credible
source has ever found a connection to the muslim terrorists, to be the
current most dangerous threat to the free world. It is simply not
credible, because the US, especially the Bush administration, has gambled
away its credibility long before.
To ask others to respect the UN and its resolutions, the current US
government first has to reearn enough respect and credibility.
Kai
-- == Kai M. Becker == kmb@kai-m-becker.de == Bremen, Germany == "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced"
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