United Nations: Role Of International Organizations And Countries In Mass Violence

With the end of the Cold War and the world after passing through a series of catastrophic events and being on the brink of Nuclear Warfare found Disarmament to be a pertinent matter in order to retain peace. Efforts for disarmament had been in order long before the Cold War even started. The first efforts for disarmament were done in the peace treaties of 1923, then by the League of Nations by the establishment of the Disarmament Conference and then after World War II through not only the NPT and other treaties to counter-proliferation but the SALT I and SALT II peace talks and arms control agreements. However, the arms trade industry as well as the Arms developing countries have failed to follow the code of conduct’s adopted by the United Nations but have increased not only their exports to countries which contributed to mass violence and violated human rights and international law numerous times. And these have not only contributed to structural violence which is well known to be driven from political and economic goals but also triggered repressions and depressions and have been used as a tool to intimidate, coarse, and exploit ethnic communities. Moreover, with the rise of illicit arms trade and rise of the black market trade, valuable human capital is being lost to Non-State Actors which have used this to create territorial hegemony.

Development is a word that has led humanity to its greatest achievements and the reason why human civilization is where it is now thus it should be given utmost importance in the current period. Empirical evidence suggests to some extent that by disarming d disarmament without security does not guarantee development. Recent cases such as in Libya and Iraq go on to show that unless a country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is not secure there should be no reason to disarm. Thus the middle east is stuck in a dilemma that disarmament should not be done unless there security is not guaranteed. But too much armaments do result in adverse cases in which development is halted due to extreme spending on defense expenditure. It can be deduced that disarmament differs between regions thus a single formula cannot be applied everywhere. thus a combination and balance between disarmament, development and most importantly security must be achieved in order for peace and stability in the Middle East.

In order for disarmament to occur in the middle east hostilities by great powers should stop and countries should be guaranteed that they would not be compromised under any justification. End-user agreements must be implemented world-wide so illicit arms trade can be stopped and inter or intra- regional approaches to stop the rise of the black market must be adopted. International agreements such as the NPT must be signed by all countries and equality in the implementation of these treaties must be ensured by the United Nations.

After the post-war era the international community realised the importance of subverting crimes against humanity perpetrated on a large scale through the creation of an international system which held responsible the perpetrators of that crime. At the earliest stages this was done through the creation of the Nuremburg Courts to hold responsible and persecute the people and officials who committed that crime. The word originally coined by Winston Churchill was used by the International Military Tribunal in its indictments. This had a positive effect in the creation of some classification of genocide in customary international law. To fully integrate “Genocide” in international law in 1948 the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted before which Resolution 96 was adopted was adopted by the General Assembly both of which gave quite a detailed and technical definition on “Genocide”. Thus the criminal prosecution of the committing of “Genocide” started on the basis that prosecution and murder of religious, ethnic and national groups was illegal. But even before the pacts were adopted there were several cases of genocide as well such as the Armenia case and mass extermination and genocide against natives in colonial lands. The hypothesis was that after so much international heed to the issue of genocide and after the adoption of the UNGC and Resolution 96, Genocide would never occur again due to the dual pronged nature of the UNGC and its special focus on its prevention. Nonetheless, the world saw genocide many a time all across the world in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Cambodia, Myanmar and now in Palestine. Though many interventions were made to stop Genocide they had a few problems as well; a) They were either too late to prevent genocide, b) They often caused more damage to the country than genocide itself, c) Intervention was in some cases not justified and advanced imperialist goals.

Iran itself has played an important role as a responsible member of the international community to stop genocide and mass killings by ratifying the United Nations Genocide Convention, the ICCPR and by signing the ICC statue. Moreover it has also provided relief to groups effected by genocide such as in Bosnia. During discussions upon the Genocide Convention in the Sixth Committee of the General Assembly (Legal Committee) Iran has repeatedly advocated for responsible humanitarian intervention in cases of genocide with the principle of UN sanctioning of interventions. Moreover Iran has also campaigned for the notion of prosecution of states by international tribunals for committing genocide which previously has not been included in the genocide convention.

To prevent genocides Iran suggests a few measures that need to be undertaken by international community. To take preventive measures against genocide daily risk assessment of vulnerable areas by the United Nations must be undertaken and early warning systems must be established. To ensure accountability for the main perpetrators’ prosecution by international courts though already occurring must be extended to state responsibility for genocide. Moreover, truth and reconciliation committees must be established post-genocidal areas as well as measures must be taken to reintegrate refugees back in communities. International funds must be established for rebuilding of infrastructure and institutions through the usage of confidence-building measures.