On responsibility and accountability [Note: Content Warning - links to and discussion on violence/human rights abuses/war. Reader discretion is advised]

Note: CONTENT WARNING - some of this content is about upsetting, disturbing or triggering events & attitudes. Seek competent help - including professional - if you need it. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that linked articles may contains names and/or images of deceased people. READER CAUTION IS RECOMMENDED! For anyone distressed by anything in this post, or for any other reason considering seeking support, resources are available in Australia here, here, and here. In other nations, you will have to do an Internet search using terms such as “mental health support - <your nation>” (which, for instance, may lead to this, this, and this, in the USA, or this, this, and this, in France [biased towards English-language - my apologies]), or perhaps try https://www.befrienders.org/. 

Note: in my “from the news” posts, quotes are shown italicised and blue, my comments are in a different shade of blue, and “good” items are (when I remember) shown in green.

 

There have been some thought provoking news articles on responsibility and accountability. 

Now, firstly, as a brief background, the modern international world order has been evolving over the last half millennia - especially after World War (part) Two, and, in my opinion, it is better for all of us ... especially when doesn’t pander to neoliberalism and/or capitalism and/or patriarchy and/or fascism ...

The modern international world order comprises organisations, agreements, international law - and enforcement mechanisms through the International  Court  of  Justice for nations and the International  Criminal  Court for individuals of nations that are a part of the ICC agreement. 

The news articles address human rights abuses in Gaza over the last almost one year. On that, there have been warnings from outside the UK and other governments for months, as well as recent  relevant ICJ decisions, a call for warrants by the ICC.

The USA (which is not part of the ICC system) has now effectively shown it agrees in part with ICC warrants by issuing its own warrants, although not against anyone in Israel (I haven’t looked at any other overlaps/differences). 

 

The first article is from inside the UK government, and addresses the possible culpability of the UK government: 

“David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say”   https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/sep/03/david-cameron-breaches-international-humanitarian-law-gaza   “David Cameron, the former foreign secretary, sat on advice from Foreign Office officials in Israel and London that there was clear evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said ...   speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licences due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum   ...   the memorandum “is similar to what was being sent to the government from at least February onwards   ...   But what has been eventually published is in much less strident language.”   So ... pandering to the sensitivities of who? Weapons manufacturers? Snowflake voters?      

The second article is on the US warrants: 

“H____ leaders charged by US over deadly 7 October attacks on Israel”   https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/sep/04/h____-leaders-charged-us-7-october-attack-israel-yahya-sinwar-ismail-haniyeh-gaza   Good, but there are possibly cases against some in Israel      

 

There is good food for thought here, in my opinion. 

 

Other posts of mine on these topics include:

“Possible legal accountability for ALLEGED cyberbullying”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/08/possible-legal-accountability-for.html      

“On accountability - and people power [Note: Content Warning - links to reports on oppression/bigotry/hate, violence/abuse/war. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/08/on-accountability-and-people-power-note.html      

“A turning point?”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/06/a-turning-point.html      

“Accountability for the USA’s former dictator”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/accountability-for-usas-former-dictator.html      

“On public pressure affecting responses to active mass atrocity events [Note: Content Warning - mention of and links to articles violence and atrocities against victims of a wide range of ages. Reader discretion is advised]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2024/02/on-public-pressure-affecting-responses.html   This post includes links to previous posts of mine     

“How the USA contributed to the genocide of the Rohingya”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2017/12/how-usa-contributed-to-genocide-of.html      

“Reflections on War”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2020/12/reflections-on-war.html      

“Inconvenience (and the genocide of the Rohingya)”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2020/09/inconvenience.html      

[TRIGGER WARNING: Post includes a disturbing quotation]   “The Timing/Timeliness of Interventions”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2020/03/the-timingtimeliness-of-interventions.html      

“Despair [Content Warning - violence, oppression, language]”   https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/2023/10/despair-content-warning-violence.html     

https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/search/label/accountability   

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https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/search/label/personal%20responsibility   

https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/search/label/social%20responsibility  

https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/search/label/Responsibility%20to%20Protect%20%28R2P%29   

https://politicalmusingsofkayleen.blogspot.com/search?q=responsibility  

 

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

 

If they are of any use or interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post.  

If you appreciated this post, please consider promoting it - there are some links below. 

Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/