“Our [American] leaders are so socialized as to address militarized threats by acting on the basis of a militarized mentality that the deep roots of problems are ignored.” ProblemActingLeaderRootsBasesThreatAddressesMentalityIgnoredDeep Roots Author:Richard A. Falk
“American special relationships with Israel and Saudi Arabia blind us to their dreadful encroachments on human rights, as well as confer impunity on their leaders with respect to accountability for crimes against humanity.” HumansWellsHumanityLeaderRightsSpecialCrimeBlindHuman RightsIsraelAccountabilityArabiaSaudi ArabiaSaudisImpunityEncroachmentCrimes Against HumanitySpecial Relationship Author:Richard A. Falk
“In the Goldstone Report, Israeli perpetrators of possible crimes against humanity were made subject to prosecution and punishment, although the geopolitical leverage of the United States within the UN prevents implementation. At the same time, several African leaders are being prosecuted for their crimes against humanity and participation in genocide: a double standard of sorts, given the impunity accorded to the West and Israel.” MadeStatesHumanityGivenUnitedLeaderUnited StatesSubjectsCrimeStandardsWestIsraelPunishmentReportsGenocideParticipationIsraeliDouble StandardImpunityImplementationPerpetratorsProsecutionCrimes Against HumanityGeopolitical Author:Richard A. Falk
“To achieve effectiveness and legitimacy it is time to scrap the right of veto given to permanent members of the UN, or at least severely restrict its use. It is also time to either abandon the idea of permanent membership or broaden it to reflect the rise of non-Western states to the status of global leaders (e.g. Brazil, India, Indonesia, Turkey, South Africa), and to downgrade European representation by either giving the European Union a single seat or rotating a European state among Germany, France, UK, and Italy.” GivingIdeasStatesUseGivenLeaderAchieveMembersIndiaUnionsSouthWesternFrancePermanentGermanySeatsAbandonSouth AfricaRepresentationTurkeysIndonesiaEffectivenessEuropean UnionScrapBrazilMembershipLegitimacyVetoRotating Author:Richard A. Falk
“On the cautionary side, Universal Jurisdiction could be used to achieve some kind of ideologically motivated criminalisation of 'the other' that would discredit and derail a constructive effort to develop a credible meta-law that governs the behaviour of leaders of sovereign states.” KindStatesLawUsedSidesEffortLeaderAchieveUniversalMotivatedBehaviourSovereignConstructiveCredibleDiscreditJurisdiction Author:Richard A. Falk
“It should be appreciated that this whole effort to hold leaders of states criminally responsible is a rather radical challenge to territorial sovereignty and a repudiation of the whole related ethos of 'sovereign immunity'.” ShouldStatesWholeChallengesEffortLeaderResponsibleRadicalRelatedSovereignSovereigntyAppreciatedEthosImmunityTerritorial Author:Richard A. Falk
“As matters now stand, the combination of genocide, as conventionally understood, and crimes against humanity, seems sufficient to cover the criminality of political leaders, and the lethal consequences of totalising ideologies.” MatterSeemsPoliticalHumanityLeaderCrimeUnderstoodConsequenceIdeologyCombinationSufficientGenocidePolitical LeadersCriminalityCrimes Against Humanity Author:Richard A. Falk
“With Islamophobic tendencies in Europe and North America it is quite possible that Islamic leaders could be charged with 'political genocide'. An extremist American pastor in a small Florida church held a trial that convicted the Koran of encouraging the murder of non-Muslims and of being responsible for the 9/11 attacks. It is this sort of outlook that would be encouraged to claim that Islam embodied 'political genocide', a development that would have many negative effects on inter-civilisational relations within and among countries.” CountryWould BeAmericaPoliticalChurchLeaderEffectsDevelopmentEuropeNegativeClaimsRelationMurderResponsibleIslamTrialsTendenciesIslamicGenocideFloridaPastorOutlookExtremistBeing ResponsibleNorth AmericaBe Encouraged Author:Richard A. Falk
