Legal Studies Year 12 Term 2 World Order CI's

UNSC Positives

Framework exists to maintain world order

Article 41 —> Non-forceful responses to threats to peace + security

Article 42 —> Forceful responses via land sea air

Authorisation of force to maintain world order

Resolution 660: Kuwait, (1990), operation desert storm to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait region

Peacekeeping operations can be successful

Resolution 1264 (1999) East Timor

• UNTAET: oversee + manage transition to independence

• INTERFET: Restore peace, protect UNMAET, provide humanitarian aid

Over 3,000 resolutions - proof of maintaining WO

UNSC Negatives

P5 veto power prevents resolution in conflicts where p5 member has geopolitical interests

—> Russia used veto 16 times to protect Syria at UNSC resolutions

—> Oxfam: Vetoing humanity report: “a handful of powerful nations who represent only 25% of the world hold its nuclear button”

—> UNSC’s failure stretches from syria to crimea: “power structure prevents joint decisions”

UNSC = Unrepresentative

Conversation 2020 UNSC isn’t working will it ever be completely reformed?: “p5 members made up 50% of population in 1945, today they constitute only 26% of global population”

Prospects for reform:

• Increase p5

• p5 vow not to use in mass atrocities

• Increase non-permanent

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda ICTR Positives

Groundbreaking convictions and precedents

—> 93 indictments

—> 62 convictions

The Prosecutor v Jean Paul Akayesu (1998)

• Defined rape as crime against humanity

• Rape + sexual violence constitute genocide (with genocidal intent)

“The Media Case”

—> Inciting genocide = International crime

—> First court to hold members of media accountable

New York times 2003: “Court finds Rwanda media executive guilty of genocide” It was used to inflame ethnic hatred that led to massacres

Held perpetrators accountable commitment to justice

BBC 2025: “Rwandan beekeeper arrested in the US over genocide charges”

‘heinous acts of violence abroad’

International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda Negatives

Criticism of victors justice as no RPF crimes have been prosecuted

—> None of the 25-30,000 war crimes by RPF in retaliation went to court

ICTR located in Tanzania, limiting access to justice

Martin Sebukanya: “did not serve the purpose of the Rwandans”

“few even travelled there”

The conversation 2020: “Many rwandans belive they’re trying to remove this guilt by promoting justice for international audiences rather than for victims”

Tribunal was costly

20 years work cost nearly $2 billion

$40 million per offender

DW: ICTR: A failed tribunal for genocide victims and survivors

“the tribunal is said to have devoured 2billion USD”

Nuclear Proliferation Treaty 1968 (nuclear) Positives

Most signed arms treaty

—> 191 states (190 today)

—> Caps nuclear states at 9

JFK 1963: “I am haunted by the feeling that by 1970 there may be ten nuclear powers instead of four”

Encourages cooperation

South Africa convinced to abandoned nuclear weapons program in 1989 and joined NPT in 1991
—> Article VI establishes ‘good faith’ negotiations between states - honest and meaningful negotiation,

IAEA Monitors compliance + enforces NPT

IAEA - established 1957

Monitors peaceful use of nuclear energy

Reports non-compliance to UNSC

Nuclear Proliferation Treaty (nuclear) Negatives

Sovereignty allows states to not sign, breach, leave NPT

• India, Pakistan, Israel never signed: possess 440 combined warheads

DPRK left in 2003.

Waltz N (1990) Nuclear Myths and Political Realities: “if a nation possesses nuclear weapons, even a small nation can confront a major power”

NPT has not achieved disarmament

Russia and the USA possessing 13,000 combined nuclear warheads

• Russia suspending NewSTART (prevents proliferation + promotes use of nuclear energy)

AlJazeera 2023: New START nuclear deal and why did Russia suspend it?

“the Russian move was deeply unfortunate and irresponsible”

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (nuclear) Positives

Comprehensive ban on Nuclear Weapons (Jan 2021): Responding/reform to the failure of the NPT

As of Jan 2026:

—> 99 signatories, 74 ratifications

Championed by NGO: International campaign to abolish nuclear weapons (ICAN)

reflects changing VES regarding unacceptability of nuclear weapons

—> need to address impact

—> Article 6 commits member nations to provide assistance to victims of nuclear weapons

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (nuclear) Negatives

Limited Ratifications due to state sovereignty

No NWS or their allies (Australia) have ratified

Australian institute of International Affairs (2021)

“the TPNW will not eliminate one nuclear weapon”

Nuclear threat remains high as ever

(CNN 2022): “North Korea’s record year of missile testing putting the world on edge”

—> over 70 missile tests

2022: New DPRK law, prohibiting denuclearisation + allowing pre-emptive self defence

Geneva Conventions Positives

Universal framework limits effects of conflict, increases likelihood of future peace

• 196 Ratifications

• Achieved status of ‘jus cogens’

The conventions won’t prevent wars […] limit the physical damage caused by war (Think Again: Geneva conventions 2009)

GC’s have evolved —> changing nature of conflict

After WWII, Geneva Convention IV (1949) developed to protect civilians

Geneva conventions III (1949), entirely dedicated to POWs

States are enforcing GC’s

ABC 2025’s: Former SAS soldier Oliver Schulz committed to stand trial for war crimes charge of murder

“a three-year criminal investigation” found Oliver Schulz to be charged with “the war crime of murder”

Geneva Conventions Negatives

Non-Compliance is widespread

2024 Foreign Policy: Destroying Gaza’s Health Care System Is a War Crime: Israel “repeatedly targeting healthcare facilities”

Geneva Conventions laws of war need fixing - BBC News 2015: “shattering of the system of the Geneva Conventions".

Do not apply to modern assymetrical warfare

(foreign affairs 2024):“Hamas’s Asymmetric Advantage”

“Israeli forces killing thousands of palestinians”

Barriers to enforcement

Age of impunity: 2021:

"norms and laws... sanctified in the Geneva Conventions... are being lost" —> breaches unpunished

R2P (Responsibility to Protect) Positives

Reflects moral and ethical condemnation of sovereignty being used as a shield for atrocities

Sovereignty viewed as a ‘license to kill’

Gareth Evans 2018 speech:

“When genocide, or other major war crimes were being committed behind sovereign state borders, the world would regard this as everyone’s business”

Unanimous support for R2P

World Summit 2005, unanimous agreement for R2P, consistently at UNGA’s, is agreed on

Libya 2011 Success

Resolution 1970 + 1973

—> prevented looming massacre in Benghazi by Gaddafi

—> no fly zone established

—> naval and air force quickly deployed around mediterranean sea

R2P (Responsibility to Protect) Negatives

Actions in Libya 2011 led to criticisms of the R2P principle

Failure to rebuild meant that Libya descended into civil war from 2014-2020

Accusations of R2P being used as a Trojan Horse for Regime Change

Geoffrey Robertson 'Crimes Against Humanity':

“Resolution 1973 had become a justification for tyrannicide"

Pillar III dependant on UNSC approval - p5 veto blocks

17 vetoes by Russia stalled R2P in Syria

Foreign Policy 2021: ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Is One More Casualty of the Syrian War’

• 400,000 casualties in Syria

• 200,000 missing

China and Russia’s veto stopped intervention in Myanmar

GlobalR2p 2021: The Yearlong Failure to Protect Myanmar’s People and What to Do Now’

“only the Security Council can impose a legally binding international arms embargo”

Domestic political will to provide support limits R2P

'Syria is a failure of commitment, not principle' (Washington Post 2016)