ACTION: We Petition the United Nations
to Apply the Rule of Law to Ukraine

World BEYOND War

To: The United Nations General Assembly
From: [Your Name]

The Russian government has called for an investigation and prosecution of the US government for sabotaging the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.

Ukraine, the European Union, and the United States have proposed an ad hoc special tribunal to try Russia for the crime of aggression and related offenses.

These approaches are distinguishable from victor’s justice purely because there is unlikely to be any victor, and such law-enforcement-by-outlaws would need to happen simultaneously with the ongoing war or following a negotiated compromise.

Neither the United States nor Russia is a party to the International Criminal Court (though Norway and other relevant parties are) — and the United States punishes other governments for supporting the ICC. Both the United States and Russia defy the rulings of the International Court of Justice. Of 18 major human rights treaties, Russia is party to only 11, and the United States to only 5.

The United States and Russia are the top two dealers of weaponry to the rest of the world, the two worst abusers of the veto in the UN Security Council, the two worst violators of nuclear and other disarmament treaties, and the two biggest holdouts on and flouters of the Landmines Treaty, the Arms Trade Treaty, and the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Justice cannot come out of the barrel of a gun. Nor should a charade of justice serve as propaganda against a war opponent. The very idea of international law depends on the United Nations General Assembly democratically and without bias applying the same standard to all parties.

Doing so need, of course, in no way imply the incoherent-but-popular-to-object-to idea that any two actors are equal to each other in any way, or that any two crimes are equal to each other.

We need an honest investigation in Ukraine of the likely violation of dozens of laws by multiple parties, including in the areas of:
• Facilitation of the 2014 coup
• The war in the Donbas from 2014-2022
• The invasion of 2022
• Threats of nuclear war, and the keeping of nuclear weapons in other nations in possible violation of the Nonproliferation Treaty
• The use of cluster bombs and of depleted uranium munitions
• The sabotage of Nord Stream 2
• The targeting of civilians
• Mistreatment of prisoners
• Forced conscription of protected persons and conscientious objectors to military service

Beyond criminal prosecution, we need a process of truth-and-reconciliation. This can only be created by a democratically representative world body that acts independently of imperial powers. We are calling upon the United Nations General Assembly to be that body.

ACTION: International Law Is at Stake in Ukraine
To sign the petition, click here.