Death of International Law

As World War II ended, the victors, USA, USSR, Britain and China, established the United Nations (UN) with the avowed aim of maintaining international peace and security, and developing friendly relations among states. The violence and destruction unleashed by the two World Wars had convinced everyone that there should be no more wars. The UN Charter provided for pacific settlement of disputes between members, and, in case the warring countries failed to settle their dispute by peaceful means, the Security Council could step in and adopt coercive measures ~ ranging from diplomatic and economic to the use of armed force.

Setting up the UN by common consensus was probably the strongest declaration that all countries would henceforth, abide by international law ~ a rule-based order, as enunciated by major signatories ~ which would lead to universal peace and prosperity. Living up to its promise, the UN actively promoted decolonisation, handholding the eighty colonies that gained independence in the aftermath of WW II. The UN, through its agencies like the FAO, IMF, World Bank and programmes and funds like UNDP and UNICEF actively supported the newly independent countries, helping them tide over food shortages, droughts, medical emergencies, etc.

All countries, developed and non-developed were immensely benefited by UN agencies like ILO, ICAO, UNESCO, WHO, UPU, IMF, World Bank etc. as also the UN sponsorship of nuclear arms control treaties and environmental initiatives. International trade flourished, many countries in Asia and Africa, including India and China, stepped out of abject poverty. However, there was another side to this success story. Too soon, memories of the carnage of WW II faded, and the victors started jostling to establish their hegemony ~ dividing the world into US and Russian blocs. NATO and Warsaw Pact armies stood eyeball to eyeball, threatening to start a war that could bomb humanity into oblivion. The Cold War, between the two blocs, inhibited trade and healthy relations. Liberal use of the veto by the United States and the Soviet Union ~ to cover their own transgressions ~ seriously compromised effectiveness of the UN.

Post-Cold War, the only remaining superpower, the US, rampaged unhindered through Iraq, erstwhile Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Syria ~ to mention only some of its misadventures. According to former US President Barack Obama: “In the middle of the Cold War, the chances of reaching any consensus had been slim, which is why the UN had stood idle as Soviet tanks rolled into Hungary or US planes dropped napalm on the Vietnamese countryside. Even after the Cold War, divisions within the Security Council continued to hamstring the UN’s ability to tackle problems. Its member states lacked either the means or the collective will to reconstruct failing states like Somalia, or prevent an ethnic slaughter in places like Sri Lanka” (A Promised Land, 2020).

Thus, despite fine debates in the UN General Assembly, international law, in its most vital sphere, was observed only in breach. The Russian invasion of Ukraine, continuing in its fifth year, the compete annihilation of Palestinians at the hand of Israel, and the two US-Israel invasions of Iran, highlight the increasing irrelevance of UN, and a breakdown of international law. The Ukraine war has resulted in a million dead and injured on the Russian side and 700,000 dead and injured on the Ukraine side, and a refugee crisis for both Russia and Ukraine. The Security Council has been unable to act ~ deadlocked by the veto power of Russia. True, the UN General Assembly has debated and condemned the Russian role in the war, but unlike the Security Council, its resolutions are not binding on member states.

In the UN session called to mark the third anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the US sponsored a resolution in the Security Council, which called for an end to the war, but contained no criticism of Russia – showing convergence of interests of the powerful, against the weak. The invasion of the Gaza strip by Israel in October 2023, resulted in an unprecedented tragedy. More than 60,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed. The dead include 180 journalists and media workers, 120 academics, and over 224 humanitarian aid workers, which include 179 employees of UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Scholars have estimated that 80 per cent of Palestinians killed were civilians.

Israeli airstrikes and the blockade of Gaza Strip by Israel, which included restrictions on humanitarian aid, led to widespread famine. More than two million Gazans ~ about 95 per cent of Gaza’s population ~ were displaced. Also, many instances of torture, rape, and wanton destruction have been recorded by independent sources. In a September 2025 report, UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory concluded that Israeli authorities and Israeli security forces committed four of the five genocidal acts defined by the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely killing, causing serious bodily or mental harm, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians in whole or in part, and imposing measures intended to prevent births.

The Commission urged Israel and all States to fulfil their legal obligations under international law to end the genocide and punish those responsible for it. Significantly, in its advisory opinion, rendered at the behest of the UN General Assembly, the International Court of Justice had held Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories to be illegal and issued warrants against the Israeli PM and Defence Minister, but in view of the US veto, no action has been possible. The US design to control the Middle-East, and its energy resources, through Israel, was being thwarted by the autocratic Iranian regime of the Ayatollahs, who set up an ‘Axis of Resistance’ ~ terrorist organisations like Hezbollah, Hamas, and Houthis ~ which acted as proxies of Iran against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Another factor was the Iranian nuclear programme, which the Israelis feared would soon yield an Iranian nuclear bomb.

Consequently, Israel invaded Iran in 2024, 2025, and now in 2026. The US jumped into the Twelve Day War in 2025, to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, and joined Israel in attacking Iran on 28 February 2026. The most blatant failure of the UN, and international law, has been the failure to prevent recurring Iran-Israel wars. A greater tragedy is unfolding now. After three weeks of war in Iran, thousands of civilians, including hundreds of school children have been killed, millions more are displaced, and billions of dollars have been spent. Energy infrastructure costing billions of dollars, belonging to more than half a dozen countries, is in shambles, leading to a worldwide shortage of petrol, diesel and natural gas. Yet, the US-Israeli unprovoked attack has not even been discussed at the United Nations.

On 11 March 2026, the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 2817, sponsored by Bahrain, which called for Iran to stop its attack on the Gulf states and condemned the strikes as a violation of international law. The resolution did not mention US-Israel strikes on Iran and Lebanon, which can be seen as a validation of the ancient saying that the mighty can do no wrong ~ a principle which modern international law wants to undo. The US under Trump has no regard for international law. On 7 January 2026, Trump signed a memorandum withdrawing the U.S. from 66 international organizations, treaties, and UN entities. The list includes 31 UN-affiliated bodies ~ including climate and legal committees ~ most established and funded by the US.

Even otherwise, post WW II, the US had little use for international law, particularly when it came in the way of its global ambitions. As succinctly observed by American intellectual and philosopher, Noam Chomsky: “The US ~ the idea that the US has introduced and imposed principles of international law, that’s hardly even a joke. The United States has even gone so far as to veto Security Council resolutions calling on all states to observe international law. That was in the 1980s under Reagan.” One can only hope that the US, Iran and Israel all have a saner leadership, which has more respect for international law, and which does not put the entire world in danger through their reckless actions.

(The writer is a retired Principal Chief Commissioner of Income-Tax )

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Death of International Law

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