Disorganisation and Division: The International Community in 2011

Yesterday I heard a report on the radio that the International Criminal Courts had issued an arrest warrant for Libyan Leader Colonel Gaddafi…

This lead me to question- why now? The conflict in Libya has been going on since mid February. Several members of the Libyan Government resigned in protest of the injuring of civilians by Gaddafi’s forces, and the Red Cross also noted that the conflict was effecting civilians. Even the Libyan Ambassador to the UN (who defected during the conflict) told the BBC that there would likely be a genocide if the International Community did not act in time, so why did it take the ICC so long to decide to issue an arrest warrant for a man that is clearly responsible for many crimes within his country, some of which date back to the 1970s.

Gaddafi later issued a response to the arrest warrant- He claimed that the ICC has “no ligitimacy”… And so far he’s got away with it… I wonder if that one will work next time the Police try to arrest me?!!? (Jokes- I’ve never been arrested) But essentially it is the same principle- except if I said that to a Police Officer, they’d probably give me a clip ’round the ear, whereas in this case, the international community have just sat back, gobsmacked- they can’t do anything!

Another point is the UN ‘no-fly zone’ over Libya. It has become apparent that the UN has virtually no power over the International Community- although the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister David Cameron both waited until the UN has given the go ahead for the no fly zone, the UN has not ordered others to support it. France and Britain are the only nations supporting the ruling. Where are the UN’s other 190 member states???

Does this mean that the UN has no authority to order others to enforce their ruling??

If so, how is the UN useful as an organisation which is supposed to uphold the peace? Like the ICC’s recent arrest warrant, the UN is in danger of being completely ignored. Countries may cause a fuss for the first few days after a ruling, but after that period everyone will forget about them- haven’t we seen this before???

Well I personally haven’t, but it has happened before- in 1939, with the League of Nations. The League of Nations was set up by several European states to prevent any conflicts after the Great War, and as we know, it failed. Most see it’s primary reasons for failure as the United States’ refusal to join and the fact that it had no armed force to enforce it’s rulings.

The UN was supposedly set up on the belief that we wouldn’t be repeating these mistakes, but the UN doesn’t have it’s own armed force, and the US aren’t enforcing the No Fly Zone, so does this mean the UN is destined for the big European Bin???

Also, what is NATO?!?!?! I mean I know what it is, but the fact is that nowadays there are so many organisations doing the same job that it’s difficult to know where the jurisdiction of one ends and an others’ begins. I have a suggestion…wait for it…

Unite them all under one International Organisation and make its’ aims to uphold peace (by any means) and protect peoples’ civil and human rights. JOB DONE!!!!

Ok, so it’s not completely fool proof, but realistically it is much better than having loads of organisations which practically do the same job, it is basically the equivalent of you not having to decide whether to go to the corner shop or the local supermarket- if there’s only one then it cuts the amount of decisions that have to be made… also, it would help improve communication and save on paper- so I guess this plan wins the hearts and minds of Green Peace too!