RULE OF LAW
The hallmark of modern civilization is that it advocates,
and is based upon, the rule of law. The world over, societies
and communities are governed by written rules and regulations
which are enforced and applied on all, without favour or prejudice.
This is as true for Village and Town Councils as for Municipal
Corporations and for Provincial and National Governments.
However, it is yet to become true for the International Comity
of Nations, where the decisions of the UNO or its constituents
like the General Assembly or the Security Council, are not
mandatory and countries may or may not abide by these !
The World Today
The world today is passing through probably the most difficult
phase in human history when the very survival of humanity,
nay, life itself, is gravely endangered. The threats come
not only from the huge nuclear stockpile of over 36,000 warheads
but also from the alarming rise in worldwide pollution levels
and the ever-widening ecological imbalance. Recently, a new
and probably far more deadlier threat has emerged in the form
of international terrorism which is a direct result of international
lawlessness and lack of enforceable international law.
Ineffectiveness of the United
Nations
Like its unmourned predecessor, the League of Nations, the
United Nations has also failed to fulfil the objectives for
which it was formed. In the five and a half decades of its
existence, the UNO has seen more people die in numerous wars
all over the world, than had died in both the world wars combined.
The UNO also saw the nuclear countries build up massive stockpiles
of nuclear weapons, said to be over 36,000 warheads strong.
Moreover, 80 countries have also stockpiled chemical and biological
weapons. The UNO has been a silent spectator to all this and
more. In its half a century of existence, it has merely watched
as three fourths of the earth's tropical forest cover disappeared.
Even though the UNO has many achievements to its credit, in
the ultimate analysis, one has to admit that it has fallen
far short of the expectations of its founding fathers. In
the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the USA, the UNO
seems to have gone into hibernation. One is reminded of what
Jan Tinbergen, the 1969 Noble Laureate in Economics, said,
"World's problems can no longer be solved by national
governments. What is needed is a World Government. This can
best be achieved by strengthening the United Nations system."
It may be pertinent to point out that national armies that
were created to provide safety to their people, have utterly
failed to generate a sense of security. No country is safe
and people all over the world feel insecure and unsafe.
Need of the Hour
Now that the United Nations has admitted its inability to
safeguard the right of children of the world to a safe future,
and the leaders of various countries are unwilling or incapable
of either arresting the global stockpiling of weapons of mass
destruction or reversing the massive tide of environmentally
damaging and ecologically destructive activities worldwide,
the need of the hour clearly is for an international law-making
body, a World Parliament, whose enactments would be uniformally
applicable on all the countries and all the peoples of the
world. However, world leaders have already demonstrated their
lack of statesmanship which was clearly evident at the UN's
Millennium Summit (held from 6th to 8th September 2000 at
New York) where even though the agenda included discussions
on 'a new international economic and political order', the
biggest gathering of Heads of State and Heads of Government
failed to come to any conclusion. All of them were singularly
preoccupied with the affairs of their own countries and the
issues confronting their region and neighbours.
World Judiciary — Humanity's
Last Hope
On behalf of over 28,000 CMS students representing the world’s
two billion children, Mr Gandhi wrote many letters to Dr Kofi
Annan, Secretary General of the UNO requesting that children’s
Right to a Safe Future be recognised and included in the UN’s
Declaration of Rights of the Child. The Secretary General
chose to reply (vide letter dated 16th July 2001) to only
one letter of Mr Gandhi (dated 29th June 2001) which had also
congratulated the Secretary General on his reappointment,
and even then Dr Annan only thanked Mr Gandhi for his compliments
and made no mention of Mr Gandhi’s request on behalf
of world’s children. Clearly, the United Nations is
neither ready to grant nor deny this right to the children
!
Having failed to find justice anywhere, CMS had the option
of either keeping silent or of taking the children’s
case to the world judiciary. Having appointed itself as the
custodian of the welfare of world’s children, born and
yet-to-be-born, CMS has decided to approach the Chief Justices
of the World and solicit their support in favour of the children’s
cause. The children’s last hope rests with the world
judiciary, for, Judges are trusted and respected by all, the masses as well as the classes. As the
conscience keepers of mankind and as the custodians of the
welfare of humanity's silent masses, it is the moral duty
of the world judiciary to come out of their Courts and to
deliver a public judgment on the urgent issue of global governance.
A wonderful opportunity to demonstrate their support and to
lend the weight of their office and personage to the cause
of world unity and world peace, offers itself to the International
Judicial fraternity at the 5th International Conference of
Chief Justices of the World on Article 51(c) of the Constitution
of India to be held at Lucknow, India from 10th to 12th December,
2004.
The voice of a United World Judiciary cannot be ignored and
shall have to be heard and obeyed by all. Therefore, Judges
of the World must unite for the sake of humanity's survival,
for the sake of world's two billion children and for the sake
of Justice for all. If the Judiciary fails to grasp this historic
opportunity, then nothing can save the world from total annihilation
in a third world war.
World Parliament for World Peace
Perhaps the choice before all who inhabit this earth, is whether
the unification of humankind will happen after unimaginable
horrors precipitated by humanity's stubborn clinging to old
patterns of behaviour, or is to be embraced now by an act
of consultative will. For, there is no doubt that only a legally-constituted
World Parliament can bring about world unity and ensure world
peace as also initiate global efforts to conserve the environment
and to outlaw and eliminate all weapons of mass destruction,
thus safeguarding the future of humanity and specially the
world's two billion children, born and yet-to-be-born.
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