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The United Nations and Its Structure

A variety of international organizations are needed to help keep the peace and ensure that rules and regulations are followed. The largest and most visible international organization is the United Nations. Created in 1945, the United Nations is entrusted with a huge mandate, which includes monitoring and helping to resolve international conflicts, human rights issues, disputes on the application of international law, war crimes, and humanitarian aid, just to name a few. However, the United Nations is not a world government and cannot make laws. Its primary role is to resolve international conflicts.

The United Nations has six main branches, known as organs. The General Assembly, the Security Council, the Secretariat, the Economic and Social Council, the Trusteeship Council and the International Court of Justice, each serves a unique role in the international organization. Five of the branches are located at the United Nations headquarters in New York, while the sixth, the International Court of Justice is located at The Hague in the Netherlands.

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The United Nations is not the first international organization formed to prevent war between nations. After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles made a provision to create an international organization, known as the League of Nations. The mandate of the League of Nations was to avoid another world war and to settle disputes among nations peacefully. It aided in reducing armaments, and improved the quality of life for all people. The failure of the United States to join the League, the League’s inability to stop Mussolini from attacking Ethiopia, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and the aggression of Hitler in the 1930s all showed the weaknesses that existed within the organization. While the League of Nations failed to prevent another world war and officially ceded to exist in 1946, the idea of the League served as the basis of the new United Nations.

The Geneva Conventions

The Geneva Conventions are a series of protocols that apply to protect the vulnerable and defenceless during a conflict. Signed in Geneva, Switzerland, these agreements govern the humane treatment of civilians and soldiers. The basic principle of the Conventions is that the human dignity of all individuals must be respected at all times. The first Geneva Convention, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Wounded and Sick in Armed Forces and Field (1864) and the second Geneva Convention, the Convention for the Amelioration of the Condition of Wounded, Sick, and Shipwrecked Members of Armed Forces at Sea (1899), are very similar in principle, as each states that if a member of the armed forces is wounded or sick, and cannot take an active part in the hostilities, then this person is in need of protection and care. They should be afforded the same treatment as would be provided for their own forces.

As well, all efforts should be made to collect the dead quickly, confirm death by medical examination, to identify bodies, and protect them from robbery. Finally, both Conventions, whether pertaining to the seas or the land, state that medical equipment, medical establishments, or ambulances should not be intentionally destroyed or prevented from running.

The third Geneva Convention, Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War (1929) focuses on the treatment of prisoners of war. It outlines that prisoners of war must be:

treated humanely;
able to inform their family and the International Red Cross/Central Prisoners of War Agency of their capture;
allowed to correspond with their families and receive parcels;
allowed to keep their clothing and personal effect;
supplied with adequate food and clothing;
provided adequate shelter (similar to their captor’s troops);
provided medical care;
paid for work they do; and
released quickly when the conflict ends.
As well, prisoners must not be:

forced to give any information other than their name, age, rank, and service number;
given individual privileges other than for reasons of health, age, sex, military rank, or professional qualifications;
forced to do military work or work that is dangerous, unhealthy, or degrading; or
deprived of money or valuables without a receipt.
The fourth Geneva Convention Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War (1949) focuses on all people who do not belong to the armed forces, take no part in the hostilities and are in the hands of the Enemy. Like the third convention, the fourth convention outlines the treatment of civilians. Civilians must be:

treated humanely and protected against acts of violence;
respected for their religious convictions, manners, customs, and family rights;
allowed to correspond with family with personal information;
allowed to practise their religion;
allowed to have their children interned with them and if possible families should be housed together;
provided special protection if wounded, sick, old, children under fifteen, expectant mothers or mothers of children under seven; and
provided medical care.
Civilians must not be:

discriminated against because of race, religion, or political opinion;
forced to give information;
used as a shield in military operations;
punished for an offence they did not personally commit;
raped, indecently assaulted, or forced into prostitution.
The underlying principles of all four conventions are based on the idea that human dignity must be respected at all times. Every possible effort must be made, without discrimination, to reduce the suffering of people put out of action by sickness, wounds, or captivity whether or not they have a direct part in the conflict.

The Red Cross and the Red Crescent are considered under international law to be groups that encompass humanitarian principles and aid in reducing the suffering of others. Each of the groups has its own distinctive emblem defined in the Geneva Conventions i.e., the Red Cross or the Red Crescent on a white background. These emblems may only be used to indicate or to protect the medical personnel, establishments, and material protected by the Conventions. During peacetime, countries may use the emblem for peacetime activities, but in wartime they are not allowed to display the emblem unless granted permission by their government.

War Crimes Trials

War Crimes Trials resulted after World War II. War crimes trials exist to charge people who violated the laws and customs of war based on the principles of international law. The international community indicted both German and Japanese for crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the conspiracy to commit criminal acts. The Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials suggested a shift from the importance of state sovereignty alone, to a broader view of the rights and responsibilities of nations. As a result, more support for international law and the need to protect human rights developed. While the United Nations tried to set up an international criminal court following the Nuremberg and Tokyo Trials, the Cold War prevented such an idea from taking root. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the United Nations set about creating a war crimes tribunal to prosecute crimes against humanity, and in particular the condoning of genocide in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. These ad hoc tribunals only addressed the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In order to try and prevent further abuses, human rights groups argued that a permanent court or tribunal be organized. The International Criminal Court set up in 1998, is a permanent and independent court that tries persons accused of the most serious crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.

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International Criminal Court

Red Crescent symbol	The UN established the first ever permanent International Criminal Court, the ICC, in the Hague, the Netherlands, to prosecute individuals responsible for the most serious crimes of international concern: genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Unlike the International Court of Justice, which does not have the right to prosecute individuals, the ICC’s role is to prosecute those who are responsible for committing, abetting, or assisting in the gravest crimes, whether they are military leaders or commanders or heads of state or other superiors. The ICC is complementary to national courts and will only act if the countries themselves are unable to prosecute the individuals. One restriction set out in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which governs the ICC, is that the court cannot prosecute events that took place before July 1, 2002. Since that Statute, the ICC received four referrals: Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and Darfur in the Sudan. Unlike previous tribunals, the ICC will avoid the delays and cost of creating ad hoc tribunals. It is hoped the creation of an International Criminal Court will help in monitoring the large number of abuses that take place internationally.
INTERPOL

The International Criminal Police Organization, commonly known as INTERPOL is the world’s largest police organization. It facilitates cross-border police co-operation and supports all authorities interested in preventing or combating international crime. Forbidden from any “intervention or activities of a political, military, religious, or racial character”, action is limited by the existing laws in different countries and to the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In order for INTERPOL to become involved, crimes must overlap several member countries and be such that there are concerns regarding public safety. Terrorism, organized crime, war crimes, illicit drug production, drug trafficking, weapons smuggling, and trafficking human beings are just a few of the areas in which INTERPOL is involved.