Opinion: Let's stop forcing our values on others

There’s the International Criminal Court, the International Court of Justice (sometimes called the World Court), Western Values and the International Rules-Based Order. These last two are capitalized to imply that they carry the same gravitas as the ICC and the ICJ.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ or World Court) is a civil tribunal that hears disputes between countries. In theory, any state member of the United Nations, by signing the charter agrees to comply with any decision of the International Court of Justice in a case to which that nation is a party. In practice, this is not always true.

As an example, the United States accepted the ICJ’s jurisdiction in 1946, but withdrew that acceptance in 1948 after the ICJ called on the U.S. to “cease and to refrain” from the “unlawful use of force” against the government of Nicaragua.

The International Criminal Court, based in the Hague, investigates and prosecutes individuals responsible for grave offenses such as genocide and war crimes.

The Rome Statue of the International Criminal Court was established by the ICC. The treaty was adopted in Rome at a diplomatic conference in 1998 and came into force in 2002. Today, 124 states are party to the statue.

Dozens of governments are not ICC parties, and some notable exceptions that are not signatories to the treaty include, the United States, China, India, Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Qatar, Russia and Israel.

While decisions by the ICC should have no impact on those not signatories to the Rome Statue, some of the non-members feel obliged to agree or disagree with the decisions. When the court issued a warrant for the arrest of Vladimar Putin, the U.S. agreed wholeheartedly. When the ICC considered issuing a warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu, the U.S. Congress threatened the court with sanctions.

As a layman, it seems to me that in international law, no matter what an international court decides, a member nation can do whatever is beneficial to that nation’s government regardless of the decision.

There is really no such thing as an international rule of law. There is only what is called Western Values and the International Rules-Based Order. International court decisions have come to mean whatever the International Rules-Based Order community wants them to mean.

We should stop trying to force our values on those who wish to live with a set of “Other-Than-Western Values.”

Rube Render is a former Clovis city commissioner and former chair of the Curry County Republican Party. Contact him:

[email protected]