Submitted by: Submitted by jinmin
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Pages: 6
Category: Other Topics
Date Submitted: 07/03/2015 01:42 AM
The activities and relations between states and other significant non‐state global actors
such as NGOs intending to promote peace and resolve conflict is known as world order.
However, weak legislative, executive, and judicial institutions and the inability to
maintain good governance and uphold the rule of law will undermine the capacity of
international law, and hence, states’ ability to achieve global peace and security. This is
compounded by the international law principles; R2P and state sovereignty which
entrenches states’ impunity for their perpetration of mass atrocity crimes despite their
“primary responsibility for protecting populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes
against humanity and ethnic cleansing (Secretary‐ General’s 2009 Report on
Implementing the R2P). Ongoing world order issues such as Syria’s indiscriminate
killings and attacks on the civilian population, and Darfur’s (West Sudan) ethnic
cleansing and commission of war crimes demonstrate the necessity for the achievement
of world order. To this end, the UN, NATO, various unions, conventions and treaties and
non‐legal mechanisms such as NGOs all have a role to play despite varying degrees of
effectiveness.
State sovereignty is the right of each individual nation‐state to exclusively govern its
territory and citizens without foreign interference (Art. 1, Montevideo Convention
1993). Although, this is a fundamental international law principle, countries have
abused it in order to shield themselves from intervention and also justify human rights
abuses within their borders. However, in the case of Russia’s annexation of Crimea,
Russia has breached many of its obligations under IHL including 1994 Budapest
Memorandum, the Russian Federation agrees to “respect the independence and
sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine”. Under Art. 2 (4) of the UN Charter
(1945), Russia as a member of the UN, must “refrain in their international relations ...