Ashley Green-Thompson runs an organisation that supports social justice action. Ashley Green-Thompson runs an organisation that supports social justice action.
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Listening to the news can be educational. I had to look up the meaning of the word ‘demarche’ as it’s been featuring prominently on the wires this week. A demarche is merely a formal diplomatic representation of one government's official position, views, or wishes on a given subject to another government in order to persuade, inform, or gather information. In recent events, the South African government presented its unhappiness about the behaviour of the US ambassador to this country. I imagine they reminded Leo Brent Bozell III about the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961 that is universally agreed to be the rules-based framework to facilitate friendly diplomatic relations. He can’t be going around shooting his mouth off and saying he doesn’t care about what our courts say. He has to respect our laws and institutions.
Old Bozell is also empowered by his orange boss to act the fool, but his behaviour speaks to a more serious concern about the increasing disregard by governments of the rules that are meant to maintain peace and "friendly relations" between nations.
I’m no uncritical fan of the world order as it is now. The state of international relations is defined by continued imbalances of power between wealthy and less wealthy countries, or Global North and Global South, and the UN Security Council still gives veto power to China, France, Russia, the UK, and the US. Who died and made them the boss of me?
Seriously, this aggressive war initiated by the USA and Israel against Iran has shown up so many governments as being far less committed to the rule of law and the consensus-seeking of the United Nations, and far more concerned about narrow self interest. Is the orange ogre that scary that whole democratically elected governments cannot speak for themselves and independently?
The European Union has refused to condemn the attack on Iran as a contravention of the UN Charter that prohibits the use of force except when authorised by the Security Council, or in cases of self-defence against an armed attack. There is agreement among scholars that neither of these conditions existed, yet the focus of the EU’s ire is Iran and not the aggressor nations.
Anthony Dworkin from the European Council on Foreign Relations writes about warning signs in the attitudes of significant EU members – and the EU president herself – that indicate a relegation of the rules-based order when the law is at odds with their strategic objectives. Their inability and refusal to condemn the genocide tell me that they share the strategic objectives of entrenching Western influence in the oil-rich region, and are willing to jettison international rules to make sure there is no challenge to their power.
The UK left the EU, and I have to wonder if the progressive politics that once defined the ruling Labour Party also left. Their minister of justice, Susan Sackford, was asked in a TV interview about the bombing by the USA of a girls’ primary school in Minab, a city in southern Iran. 165 people were killed, probably the overwhelming majority of them children. In response, she refused to call this bombing of children a war crime, saying that "devastating things can happen" in war. Unable or unwilling to criticise the dropping of US bombs on a girls' school, she found it a lot easier to condemn Iran for "targeting civilians", no doubt referring to the missiles the under-fire country has launched against neighbouring states.
These countries would have us believe they are the bastion of civilisation, of the rule of law, of democratic and peaceful coexistence. I don’t think so. But there are shoots of hope. Spain refuses to be complicit in the terror being unleashed by the genocidaires and recalled its ambassador to Israel. South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation condemned the aggression and war-mongering of Israel and the USA. It also criticised Iran’s targeting of neighbouring states – civilians should never be targeted. Maybe DIRCO's Minister Ronald Lamola and Director-General Zane Dangor know something we don’t. I do know that I appreciate the consistent stance of our government that challenges war-mongering, that stands up to genocide, and that doesn’t tolerate people, whether they present as orange or blonde, who would use their power and position to undermine our Constitution.