Faith in Humanity

qui tacet consentire videtur One who is silent is taken to agree

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Getting There

Planning to study abroad can be both an exciting and stressful time: worrying about what to bring, what to buy, and how you are going to pay for it all. One tip that I would give is that packing is a longer process then you might think so start a few weeks before your trip. I went to The Hague Netherlands on a Faculty led study abroad philosophy class called The Netherlands: Peace, Justice and Human Rights: The International Criminal Court and The Hague Tradition. This program is the only program at a public university in the nation to focus on the International Criminal Court and there is only one other program at a private university to do so. Thanks to getting the Gilman Scholarship I didn’t need to worry about whether or not I would be able to scrape up the money to go on the educational trip of the life time. There are lots of pots of money out there you just have to ask around and find them.

I repacked seven times. I had to keep weighing my suitcase. The first time I weighed the suitcase it was 70 pounds. Most airlines only allow you to check in a 50 pound bag without charging you a ridiculous overweight bag charge. TIP: Only bring what you absolutely need. I learned that although I was going away for two months that I did not need the 6 pairs of shoes that I brought with me and I didn’t even end up wearing them all. Remember to leave room for bringing things back from your trip. Once my bag was packet I neurotically checked that I had everything because I didn’t want to be gone for two months and be missing an important idem (like a charger). The day before I left I checked over and over that I wasn’t forgetting something. At this point the trip still did not seem real, I always feel as though something will go wrong and prevent me from going on trips like this. It doesn’t even feel real when I get to the airport. My friends and I had purchased stand by tickets so we were waiting to see if we would get on the same plain with the rest of our classmates. There were plenty of seats available so it seemed sure that we would and we did. Four of us were waiting for standby and there were two first class seats available, Anthony and I scored first class and Randy and Gerrit had to fly economy. We took off and I had a luxurious 13 hour flight with three course meals and an endless glass of wine to boot. Arriving was an unreal experience for me, I started crying on decent. Tears of joy. I had wanted to take this class for years and been let down many times when I couldn’t come up with the money to go. The Gilman Scholarship truly did get me my dream educational experience.

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The Relationship of Peace to Justice

Peace, what a great ideal but is it a real possibility? I have to admit that I was sceptical about the possibilities of peace given human nature and the current militaristic culture of the world but my mind has been turned to the side of optimism of the...

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Rational Policy for Peace

The Relationship of Peace to Justice

Peace, what a great ideal but is it a real possibility? I have to admit that I was sceptical about the possibilities of peace given human nature and the current militaristic culture of the world but my mind has been turned to the side of optimism of the future possibilities after hearing a refreshing idea of peace at the Master Class during a presentation given by Jan Techau Director of Carnegie Europe. I think peace is possible but the type of peace I am talking about is not the flowery, handholding, romantic ideal that typically comes up when we talk peace. It is however a far more realistic and sober definition of peace; a way of peace that considers human nature as it is rather than how we wish it were.

  “...peace is not an end state but a process. It is the permanent balancing of interests in a non-violent way. It has to be won again and again on a daily basis. The decision about peace or non-peace  is made at the individual level every day.” -Jan Techau

  This means that having peace does not mean no one will disagree. It does, however, mean that when states do disagree the disagreement will not be settled with armed conflict. Furthermore, to continue to have peace in the world when a state decides to break the peace is to have a proper way of dealing with the break in peace, to have justice without driving a bigger wedge between nations. This is why the proper legal bodies and laws need to be in place prior to conflict. We need to establish a culture that looks to diplomacy or arbitration as means to resolving conflict. We already have the foundations for this to be a reality with the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) and The Rome Statute. Justice is an important part of a world where human rights are upheld and peace is in action.

  While peace and justice are not two sides of the same coin they are linked. Justice is the backbone that peace needs in order to maintain order. While both concepts (peace and justice) can be imagined exclusively, the kind of world in which I want to live has peace and justice hanging in a balance. That balance ensures that wrongs are redressed in a manner that will perpetuate peace in the future.

  The Role of Education in Peace

The first step I believe in establishing a true foundation of peace is in education. While sitting in Vienna at a symposium on peace with peace scholars from all different backgrounds, one thing that all of us agreed on (and we disagreed on many things) is that peace can only be achieved through the education of the public. People need to be aware of the things happening in the world and the history behind events in order to answer the call to stand up for the world as it should be. Admitting the truth of the past is the most essential component of moving forward in this education.

  “A nation that does not deal with its past, will be haunted by it. And dealing with the past is often painful. Even in the Netherland, where we are so quick to point the finger at other, we become extremely uncomfortable when confronted with questions like ‘what did we really do in Indonesia?, or 'what happened to the Jewish part of the population during the war?'. Why are such questions so difficult to face? It is because they are not about abstract matters, they are about emotions. And in situations of conflict, emotions often run high. It is difficult to manage emotions, and in this respect it must be noted how well Germany and the Germans have tackled the problem of their troubled past. They have struggled with it and have been enormously successful.” -Paul Meerts, Deputy Director of The Clingendael Institute.

  We need to educate and accept past wrongs in order to move forward. In my opinion the next step in ‘project humanity’ needs to be an enlightenment of the true history; to be able to say this is what happened and then move beyond it. We need to take a move from the European Union’s playbook and admit past wrongs then set them to the side where they cannot be used as ‘political currency.’

  This idea brings me to an experience I had our very first week in the Hague meeting with the Dutch nationals who were victims of cruelty of the Japanese empire during the second World War. Above all they wanted Japan to admit the wrongs they had inflicted and apologize formally for it.

  “Injustice creates conflict. It is a threat to peace, and if we do not create justice, peace may not be sustainable. We need justice for sustainable peace. This means we also need, for example, truth and reconciliation committees.” -Paul Meerts

  These truth and reconciliation committees are the perfect starting point for education of the true history and also a way to let history be know yet resolved in a peaceful manner.

  “A nation that does not deal with it’s past, will be haunted by it” -Alex Boraine, Deputy Chairman of South African Truth and Reconciliation Committee

  The Life and Legacy of Bertha von Suttner

Bertha von Suttner was an Austrian born baroness, author, and peace activist (to name only a few of her many roles) who devoted her life to furthering the ideals of peace. Even in a time where women had little political power von Suttner found a way to influence a world she saw heading in the wrong direction. She is the woman who inspired Alfred Nobel to create his Peace Prize. Her lasting message for which she devoted her life was “Lay down your arms.”

  While “lay down your arms’ was her most famous message von Suttner had many other lessons which deserved to be remembered. These messages include ones of the importance of education and the importance of memory.

“... that I am repeating what is for the most part a matter of common knowledge, what was printed in the newspapers everywhere, and therefore is treasured in the memory of all --- this I do not believe. The forgetfulness of the public is great.What one day brings, the next swallows up again. I know from my own experience how, before I had begun to live for the peace cause, political events, even though they were important, disappeared from my memory without leaving a trace, if indeed they had attracted my attention at all. But now I noted in my diary everything that related to the struggle that was taking place between the new idea and the old institutions; this was the read thread which I followed in weaving the history of the day,-- a thread which assuredly has quite escaped those who have not kept their eyes expressly fixed upon it.”

-Bertha von Suttner

  She speaks of exactly the kind of remembering that education can afford to us as a tool for peace I mentioned in the last section. She was a woman who devoted everything including her dying words to a peaceful world and for that I believe she is worthy of being part of the history we remember. She reminds me of a poem I once read by Don Marquis called ‘the lesson of the moth” in which he says while he does not agree with the moth but he wishes there was something he wanted as badly as the moth wanted to fry himself. In this way well I do not agree with everything Bertha von Suttner had to say I hope to be as devoted to peace as she was.

  Going to Harmannsdorf was truly a great experience. Seeing the place where Bertha spent part of her life really brought her to life for me. This is the kind of life we need to bring to the education of the past. We need to make it real for people so they cannot deny it but rather have to embrace a dark history in hopes of creating a brighter future. As Bertha said, “Education must continue from the cradle to the grave.”

The Relationship of Human Rights to Peace

“Man, you and I in person, our origins, our nature, our rights, our destiny: these are the questions of the age…. Here you have the exciting drama of man seeking to grasp himself.” -Charles Malik

  I think the fear of many people is that when we reduce man to his parts and causes that we will not (and have not) find ourselves to be the peace seeking good being we wish to be. That does not and should not stop us from seeking the world as it should be rather than the world as it is. While human nature may not be the ideal state from which peace may arise, I believe if we take a progressive outlook on law and decide as individual and then as nations (made up of individuals) that a set of rights of which each of us would like to secure for ourselves we can then jump to those rights being ones that every human should have. From there general laws which protect those rights and in their protection we can secure peace.. I believe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a good list of rights to protect and if every nation protects those rights war will not be possible. If we only look at Article 3 we can see war as an impossibility. “Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.” I cannot see any way in which an armed conflict could occur and that right be upheld. War is a violation of human rights and peace would be the only option  if we uphold these rights.

While the Peace Palace is an elegant art piece I believe it is the Peace Palace Library that truly embraces human rights to their fullest. It is a place where anyone can come to learn the laws of the world. A true diamond in the rough. One of the limits is that people don’t know about it. So, again I am brought back to the discussion of education. People need to be told these resources are available to them for this true display of human rights to be taken full advantage of and maybe in the process we will find the leaders we need to lead us to peace.

The Most Important Thing this Journey has Taught Me

The most important thing this journey has taught me is that I need to continue to work to develop myself as an individual and to get over some of my defaults. To move past who I am to develop who I want to be. I am a process in the same way peace is. I need to work everyday and in every moment to be conscience of how my actions shape who I am. Furthermore that if I want to go anywhere in this field I need to realize that sober rational ideas will not sway the masses that is why having a balance of idealist and rationalist is important to the peace movement and to my personal development

  The only way to change is as Steven Pressfield says “start before you are ready.” I need to stop seeking the path of least resistance,  to stop giving up, to stop waiting around, and to grow a backbone because this field is not for the weak willed. Here is the thing: I’m not ready so I guess the time is now. I sit around constantly uncomfortable with myself because I have been lovingly and harshly pushed to realize I am not all I want to be and not all I can be. So I am standing on the ledge holding on to who I used to be because I am scared to jump into the unknown. I am so close to the edge that there is no going back I am going to leap or am I going to fall. I need to leap into this with all the blind optimism I have given life so far. While the places were amazing the thing that truly pushed me to this critical juncture where the people I was blessed to have with me. Some people tested my patience while other called me out on my bull-shit. My actions matter and they affect others. Rationalism will only get me half way I need to recognize the emotional impact I have on others (a lesson I learned standing in front of the Peace Through Justice statue in the Peace Palace).

  “Babies are born in blood and chaos; stars and galaxies come into being amid the release of massive primordial cataclysms.” -Steven Pressfield

Although humanity may be inherently chaotic that does not mean we cannot find a beautiful balance amidst the chaos; it does not mean we cannot find peace. We just have to realize peace is a process not an inevitable end state that we will naturally find. Just like I am not going to get where I want to go by continuing to coast, international law will not achieve peace by assuming that it is just a matter of time before we stumble upon it.

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Starting From A Firm Character

Here I am in Den Haag and I have had a week to simmer over a thought that I truly took to heart; keep promises, especially the ones you make to yourself. When I heard these words I thought of how easily I allow myself to let go of things that I had set my mind to. Whether it was telling myself I was going to eat healthier and then grabbing the first junk food I could or telling myself that I would start my papers at least a week ahead of time and then rushing to type the last sentence before class started because I had waited until the night before to start, I have been breaking promises to myself as long as I can remember. Of course it goes back to Hillel “If not you, who? If not now, when?” If I do not keep promises I make to myself then I cannot expect other to do so. To take it a little further when I do I need to be honest about what I am doing. I need to think about what part of me is allowing me to fail my own goals and I can either get rid of that part or use it to my advantage. Keeping promises and standing for things you believe in are instrumental in developing the right kind of character.

  While I think this lesson is very important on the personal level I think it transcends the individual and can be applied in a meaningful way on a national and international scale. As a nation the United States says that it stands for certain thing by making treaties or creating laws yet often times we throw these ideal to the wayside when breaking the rules is more advantageous in the short term. This may come from a culture where instant gratification is sought out with no regard to long term effects but it may be our downfall as a world leader; If other countries only see us as seeking out a manifest destiny rather than upholding our national ideals, such as liberty.

  But many governments are betraying their responsibility. Three decades on from the Convention – and more than 65 years after the Universal Declaration – torture is not just alive and well. It is flourishing….The US government is also failing to ensure accountability for torture and enforced disappearances committed in the context of counter-terrorism operations. No one responsible for the use of interrogation techniques such as “water-boarding”, prolonged sleep deprivation, and stress positions in Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-run secret detention centers around the world has been brought to justice. The US Select Committee on Intelligence has conducted a review of the now-terminated CIA program, but its 6,000-plus page report remains classified.

   -Torture in 2014: 30 Years of Broken Promises Published by Amnesty International

The United States has strict anti-torture laws yet we have tried to cut every corner along the way slicing the definition of torture to its bones to escape the admission of our actions. We tell the world our way is the best way to be but rather than leading by example we lead by intimidation. We once were the outspoken proponent of natural law. When the world sought revenge we convinced them justice was the way. As Erna Paris writes in The Sun Climbs Slow, “In the blood-red dusk of Hitler’s genocide, they (the United States) resurrected the ancient Greeks, legislating the “unwritten laws” of Pericles and Antigone for the new age.” We put the gas on the idea of universal norms with The Nuremberg Trials and then abandoned our ideals when it came to holding ourselves accountable for reframing from the same actions we condemned the Nazi’s for.

I think the international community and the ICC should take away a lesson from the United States actions. That lesson being that while we are in the early stages of developing a norm for the court we should only commit to the ideals that we truly want to propagate. The ideals that we can stand for no matter what. A strong foundation must be set if the ICC wants to have true force in the world. While the United state does indeed have force a great deal of it comes not from respect but from being the biggest bully on the playground. If the ICC wants to be a voice of peace and reason then it must propagate itself in a way congruent with peace and the preservations of the dignity of human beings. The court must do as gandhi said “be the change you wish to see in the world.”

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We Claim the Title Let Us Act Like It!

The world conscience was truly shocked by the atrocities committed during the Second World War. As a result of this awaking the United States abandoned it’s long standing and deeply embedded legal tradition of non-retrospective law and thus the Nuremberg Principles were born. During this time the world, led by the United States, decided that some act committed by states are so atrocious that law or no law there should be legal punishment enforced and that actor of the state could and should be held accountable for their acts. The main proposal was to just shoot the Nazi leaders and enforce “an eye for an eye” justice but the United States saw this as a ‘teachable moment’ and pushed for legal punishment with fair trials instead.These trials paved the way for the eventual drafting of the Rome Statute and the establishment of The International Criminal Court (ICC). The ICC founded by the Rome Statute, with 122 countries who have signed and ratified it, has jurisdiction over some of the worst crimes committed by a state (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and act of aggression). The United States has been so far unwilling to ratify the Rome Statute. So now we must ponder why? Why would a country so willing to acknowledge the need to enforce these ideals by rule of law be unwilling to implement the same ideas into their own law? The answer to this question like any other of its magnitude is multilateral and  has no one answer but I will discuss what I find to be the most interesting and disturbing of those answers.

  “Refusing to make a promise by which we cannot abide is perfectly acceptable. In fact, it is far more honorable than swearing an oath, only later to perjure it” William R. Nifong ‘Promises Past: Marcus Atilius Regulus and the Dialogue of Natural Law.’

  Not only is Nifong right that it is acceptable I would go as far as to say you have a duty to not make promises which you know you will be unwilling or unable to uphold. This not only applies to the state but to the individual. If you say you will do something or espouse that you stand for a certain ideal then do it. Our words say little compared to our actions. Our words can be as promising and poetic as ever and mean nothing unless we follow through with actions that back up our words. Inconsistency is far worse than blatant honesty. So the United States is doing a honorable thing by not committing to something they are uncertain they can uphold.

  While this sounds great at the surface, being candid about the realities of a situation, let us think what this might say about the actions of the U.S. Again, the Rome Statute only has jurisdiction over the worst crimes a state can commit, the kinds of crimes that make many doubt the goodness of humanity. Genocide, crimes against humanity (i.e. Murder, Extermination, Enslavement, etc), war crimes, and acts of aggression are the only crimes for which the ICC can prosecute a person. The unwillingness of the U.S. to ratify a statute that only protects against these crimes suggests that our country might be committing them. In fact our previous administration has been accused of it several times. There is very convincing evidence to back up these accusations. Along with the Bush Torture Memo’s we can be fairly certain our government in involved in some despicable acts.

With a shady past and huge responsibility on the world stage the United States need to step it up. We claim to be the world leader with equality, justice, and liberty as founding ideals we need to uphold those ideas on a global scale. We say we are leading, let us lead! We found the ideals of the Rome Statute to be imperative after WWII. The U.N. with the United States at the forefront made promises and acted as though we would never let the atrocities committed then happen ever again.We are a global leader let us start acting like it rather than just a bully with the biggest guns. What will it take? It will take another awakening of sorts. The people of the United States have to push for it. We need the will of the people on our side without it things will not change.

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Breaking the Norm

It was spring 2012 in Dr. Hope May’s Philosophy of International Criminal Law class when I first heard a phrase I hope to live by for the rest of my life: “If not you, who? If not now, when?” an interpretation of a passage by Hillel the Elder. This phrase is a call to action for me; so much so that I have it tattooed on my wrists as a constant reminder. It demands courage. It demands breaking the norm. It demands actions that we are so conditioned to not take. It is not the easy way to live and that is why it is important. It reminds me that if I do not stand up for what is right then I cannot expect other to do so. As a society we are encouraged by capitalist machinery and material wants to be complacent in our own objectification. We are expected to be a passive undistinguishable member of an unconcerned populace. The upper end of the social hierarchy want nothing more than to continue  our willing slavery to a system that creates wealth and privilege for a few and poverty and unrest for the majority. A system that creates such imbalance and injustice that

“The value of pet products sold annually in the United States is four times the GNP of Ethiopia. The sales of just the two giants General Motors and Ford easily surpass the value of all black Africa's economies. According to the United Nations Development Program, "Ten people, the ten richest men on the planet, own wealth equivalent to the value of the total production of fifty countries, and 447 multimillionaires own a greater fortune than the annual income of half of humanity” (Eduardo Galliano, Upside-down: A Primer to the Looking glass World.)

 It is facts like these along with much worse realities that ‘shock my conscience.’

Shocking facts about the world I live in along with a deep and almost unquenchable thirst to leave the world better than I found it are what drive me to aspire to become a leader in the human rights field. In order to do so it is necessary to be able to communicate powerful messages that some people are not ready to hear, but none the less these messages must be thrust onto the world or it will never change.  Courage is essential. While it is imperative to say the things that are hard to say or controversial or radical it is also important to be able to connect with the populace on a level that appeals to emotions rather than reason. As Charles Malik pointed out in “Talk on Human Rights,” “If your institutions and traditions are not adapted for the production of a ringing message which will appeal to the mind and hearts of others and on which you can stake your whole life, then in the present world in which man is desperately hungry for truth and conviction, you cannot lead.”

While Malik expresses the need to wins people’s hearts in order to win their minds he also expresses an idea that goes as far back as Socrates. The idea that you must be willing to give all, including your life, to the causes you find most worthy, and, furthermore, that this is what will allow you to win the hearts of other. You need to be deeply invested in your ideals in order to convince other that you are worthy of following. Socrates took his conviction all the way to death. Socrates was of the thought that if he truly had thought about, believed in, and subscribed to a system of ideas that he should stick by them even when it meant his own death. This is either a problem or solution for decision making. It comes down to whether you sacrifice your ideals in extreme situations or you stick by them no matter the consequences.

In the end it all comes down to flesh and blood. It comes down to the human element. Do we stick by our ideals even when lives are at stake? Or are there times when it is imperative to throw out our ideals in order to save the lives of other or our own. Socrates gave all for his ideals but should he have? While I hope to have strong convictions and be passionate enough to put my life on the line for it I also think there are times, however rare, when flesh and blood come before ideals. 

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This video explain pretty clearly about how hate speech can lead to Genocide. It made me really think about how people can get manipulated so easily, the people planning this are not acting with hateful and angry. I started thinking about how this could be related to how the government hyped up the fact that we must act against terror and got everyone on board for war.

I wonder how many other times the our own government has done this? 

I was also lead to this link throw this video's ideas!

http://www.trankin.com/advisor/propaganda.asp

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Rochin and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human rights states that "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home, or correspondence." Rochin was clearly violated of his privacy when they broke into his bedroom, and further more they had little warrant for doing so, and for what two morphine pills? Lets bust the big drug dealers! This could also be seen as an attack on his reputation as well which is also covered by Article 12. How are we supposed to protect against these acts when it's the law enforcement doing the attacking? The government should fear the people not the other way around!

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My Research Topic

For my research topic I have chosen Propaganda and hate speech. This topic is extremely relevant and its effects can be very devastating. People literally get brain washed and then things like the Holocaust and the genocide in Rhonda happen before their willing eyes. Hate speech can turn someone you grew up with and played with into someone willing to kill you without a question, I believe this is one of the biggest issues when talking about international law. Words and images often start wars.

  http://www.enotes.com/propaganda-reference/propaganda

http://www.ushmm.org/genocide/spv/pdf/summary.pdf

http://theamericanmuslim.org/tam.php/features/articles/hate_speech_propaganda_alive_and_thriving/