International Law and the effectiveness of the current legal regime in dealing with War Crimes

Abstract

The world today stands at a very dangerous time in the history of mankind given the threat of war. Events such as the armed conflicts in the Former Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and currently in Iraq have confronted us with the cruelty and savagery of war coupled with the suffering, death and destruction that results. It is therefore imperative that international law is applied effectively and equally so as to forestall any threat to peace and stability as well as to ensure the maintenance of international law and order which is essential for international progress and human advancement.Admittedly human societies have since time immemorial engaged in conflicts for some end or the other during different periods of recorded history. However the threat is even greater now in the 21st century with the advance in military technology and the shift from conventional warfare to a marked increase in the acquisition of nuclear weapons by states, as well as the now increasing use of chemical and biological warfare. This shift in approach by states could have ghastly consequences on the very existence of mankind as nuclear and biological weapons threaten to obliterate the Earth.The effective enforcement of international law in maintaining world law and order has over the years been hampered by the fact that it has been applied unequally. Double standards have been applied in the enforcement of international humanitarian law as powerful nations in the past blatantly violated laid down international law standards. The effect of the arbitrary acts by powerful nations is that they weaken the charter system, in the process dismantling the entire structure of law based on international security that the United Nations was established to