Tuesday, May 21, 2013

All equal under the law?

The UK has been involved in 5 illegal wars since 2001. These have caused the deaths of at least 1 million adults in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Libya and Syria. An estimated 600,000 children have died.

The 1970 UN Declaration on Principles of International Law, Point 6:
“No State or group of States has the right to intervene, directly or indirectly, for any reason whatever, in the internal or external affairs of any other State. Consequently, armed intervention and all other forms of interference or attempted threats against the personality of the State or against its political, economic and cultural elements are in violation of international law.”

The UN Declaration makes it clear that the invasion of another state is an illegal act and those who authorise it can, under the law, be brought to account. However, we see these war criminals still being lauded as respectable statesmen, rather than being cplaced before the courts and convicted.

The Socialist Party however view all war as "crimes against humanity" regardless of whether they are supposedly defensive or aggressive, imperialist or for national liberation. They are all fought in the interest of a country's respective ruling class.

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