Keynote Address

Madam Alice de Jonge

Department of Business Law and Taxation, Monash University, Australia

 

Justices, honorable visiting representatives from around the world. I am delighted to be here with you all today and I wish to begin by expressing my extreme gratitude to Mr. & Mrs. Gandhi for making such a worthwhile conference possible. I am a visiting representative from Australia’s largest educational institution and I am both delighted & honoured to be invited by the world’s largest educational institution and I believe that those such as Mr. and Mrs. Gandhi who have endeavored to strive for furtherance of paragraph (c) of Article 51 and for the ideas expressed by Article 51 of the constitution of India have demonstrated for us that we must also if we are to strive for furtherance of those aims. I believe that we must believe and constantly reaffirm our faith and our belief in the existence of international law. There is, I wish to argue, international law and private battle. It therefore decrees countries of the world to unite in the furtherance and preservation of world peace and security if there is in fact the existence of an International consensus on the need for world peace we need a democratic more formal and institutional way to go about it hence a proposal for a democratic parliament for world peace. Any proposal to deal with the problems and sufferings or the lack of world peace must consider what to do about the security council of the united nations for the UN charter bestows upon the security council the primary responsibility about preservation of world peace if the primary legal responsibility for the preservation of world peace rests with the security council under our present situation then we must decide whether we need to reform the security council perhaps even to abolish it and replace it with a far more democratic institution because the security council cannot by any stretch of imagination be called democratic and I wish to argue that . We need, I believe a much more democratic structure and if it is to be democratic and constitutional and parliamentary it must be based on a concept of citizenship and so I will conclude by contemplating that we should have rights as a citizens to participate in our new world peace parliament. Surely the very foundation of International law is the UN charter and the UN charter decrees the very purpose for which that global institution exists are for the maintenance of international peace and security . If we look at the other sources ,the more supplementary sources of international law there is in fact an international court of justice and the charter of the international court of justice states that in addition to treaties such as the UN charter and former such treaties the court may look at and regard must be had to international custom as evidence of a general practice accepted as law by nations and the general principles of law recognized by civilized nations. Do we then have a general consensus on principles of International law as respects global peace and the duty to raise ——— I believe that today we have spent so far confirming that we do in fact have such a gobal consensus. A global consensus is what forms the foundation for international law. It doses exist and the fact that we are all alike today even if that is the only thing that remains to remind us that international law exists surely that is something. Evidence of a global consensus on a duty and need to preserve world peace has been quoted from constitutions of South Africa, Philippines and Brazil and other places around the world today. One that I found particularly interesting because it goes further to some sort of sentimental belief in International law is Article 9 of the constitution of Japan and that goes a big practical step further it decrees that the state of Japan shall henceforth renounce completely the use of force. If we had that kind of reaffirmation of the duty to preserve world peace -growing and spreading we might actually achieve something practical because that is the job of anyone who believes in International law to find practical solutions. The situation at the moment is that Article 24 of the UN charter states that the UN members have surrendered their sovereignty to the security council in bestowing upon the security council primary responsibility for the preservation of world peace that is a big surrender of sovereignty. State sovereignty when it comes to world peace does not exist countries have expressly surrendered that sovereignty and bestowed it upon the Security Council. What is the Security Council. Security Council is fifteen nations who sit together only five of whom are permanent. There is WTO and other world bodies. I also wish to argue peoples have a special status in International law and both of the human rights covenant and both of the most important treaties in the entire world the international convention on civil and political rights and international convention on social and economic rights to begin by decreeing that all peoples shall have the right to self determination in International law. Finally I wish to argue that multinational corporations are now concerned to us all not only do they replace large numbers of people- move them away from their homes in order for economic development, so called, the building of dams etc. to take place but they devastate wide areas of countryside through deforestation and mining for economic gain and profit. Multinational organizations can and sometimes have a detrimental effect on preservation of world peace. They must be brought into the network of order and stability and into the network of international law. Multinational corporations should be made to conform to the international law and their equivalent NGOs also can do a lot in the furtherance of world peace. NGOs should be incorporated to assert their rights as many of them have stakes in the furtherance of Article 51 and they need to have a say in teaching to that effect. If they are seriously included in this venture, they can play a very important part. I would like to emphasize on joint effort in establishing international law and international democratic measure for world peace. I thank CMS and all the participants for the furtherance in the cause of world peace.

 

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