By Laksiri Fernando –

Dr. Laksiri Fernando

Although we humans have developed our knowledge and sciences even to go to the moon, we have terribly failed to develop methods and practices to resolve our conflicts and wars amicably, without violating human rights of the people, countries and humanity in general. If I google to find scholarly books written on ‘conflict resolution’ in general, there are over hundreds of books and beyond.

However, I cannot find more than two-three books focusing on or studying wars and human rights violations worldwide. Under these circumstances, the credit should go to Chandra Lekha Sriram, Olga Martin-Ortega and Johanna Herman for compiling the book on ‘War, Conflict and Human Rights: Theory and Practice,’ first in 2009 and then a revised version in 2014. Even this is a decade ago.

Increased War Activities

During the last decade or so the wars worldwide have increased and doubled/trebled and understandably the scholars may find difficulties in tracking all the developments. Wars and repercussions of wars are not merely scholarly matters. The ordinary citizens, economies and human rights are greatly affected.  High-intensity wars in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Sahel and Myanmar dominated until Donald Trump started attacking Iran without much reason or predictions unfortunately. These are largely reported by PRIO (Peace Research Institute, Oslo) in Norway.

Even their assessments are generally late without much suggestions or proposals to resolve the ongoing situations directly and without delay. This is why I would propose my former young colleagues and/or students to directly involve in assessing and analysing the ongoing war situations and come up with viable democratic solutions. This also applies to any other, including scholars in general, students and journalists without prejudice to anyone who is already engaged in these research activities.

As revealed by the incident of Iranian frigate ship Iris Dena torpedoed by a US submarine in early March this year, not very far from the Sri Lankan coast, Sri Lanka is in a central or vulnerable position in the ongoing war. Therefore, the duty of the Sri Lankans to find workable and amicable solutions to the ongoing war situation is quite practical. Although a decade ago, following is what Chandra Lekha Sriram and others said about the responsibility of scholars and practitioners of democracy in their earlier mentioned book.

“The issues at stake are not merely theoretical ones; they are central to the work of practitioners in international politics and international law. The knowledge needed to address these issues is therefore interdisciplinary, being both legal and political.”

While we can consider the above statement as a concern about what is to be studied and analysed, they should not be limited to lawyers or law researchers and political scientists. Sociologists, historians, economists and so many others can play their roles.

Human Rights Violations

While one can argue that the present war started with Hamas fighters launching an assault on Israel killing about 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages on 7 October 2023, the Israel’s war against Gaza and Palestinians have been long standing. At least we can go back to 1948 when Israel was formally established and then started attacking Palestinians and Arab countries and grabbing their land. This was completely ironical because under Hitler’s Germany, and in other places, Jews and Israelis were victims, during the Second World War and before. It is estimated that around six million Jews were killed between 1933 and 1945, although these figures were challenged by others.

Since 1948, there have been seven stages of war conducted by Israel or between Israel and Palestine. The first was called Nakba killing more than 15,000 people. Second was the six-day war even I can personally remember. Around 20,000 were killed. It was since 1982, that Israel started attacking Lebanon. Then came the first Intifada (1987-1993), the rebellion of Palestinians, and the second Intifada between 2000-2005. There were two waves particularly in Gaza since 2008 to capture territory and suppress Palestinian resistance. The present one is the same during the last three years.

I have visited Israel, Gaza and West Bank during the late 1980s, two times. I have seen Israeli soldiers killing three Palestinian youth. At the same time, I have seen a bomb destroying a bus in Jerusalem. The main human rights violation that I have observed is displacement of people and families. Of course, killing also took a high rate.

Under the above circumstances, there is a pressing need to investigate human rights violations related to war and aggression. In addition to the present war between the US and Iran, and Israel’s attacks and occupation of south Lebanon, the Russian aggression against Ukraine also should be investigated from the perspective of human rights. Ironically, in that war, Russia has lost more lives than Ukraine although they have captured territory. Most European countries are clearly behind Ukraine. It is possible that Russia is conducting this war as an exercise or preparation. They believe in a Third World War. They allow the weak and hired soldiers to get killed, and modernize their armed forces. In addition to human rights violations in these wars, it is necessary to investigate war crimes and violation of humanitarian laws.

Role of UN?

Most important matter, although not discussed in detail in this article, is the role of the United Nations? It is highly questionable. Why did Pakistan was drag into mediate the ‘peace negotiations’ without UN playing that role? From India’s point of view, Pakistan is a country even involved in supporting terrorist groups. Why didn’t the UN at least participate in the negotiations in Islamabad? These are some questions that comes to my mind.

There is no question that the UN did play an important role particularly in internal conflicts and wars in some countries. My personal experience is positive in the case of Cambodia and East Timor. However, in the present conflicts and wars, its role has been conspicuous and even negative. This is not a personal criticism about the present UN Secretary General, but it is way below what one of the officials tried to explain in the following link. role of UN secretary general in peace making – Google Search        

The Chapter VI of the UN Charter from Articles 33 to 38 are very clear about the role that it should play in peaceful settlements of international and internal disputes. What actions that the UN should take in this respect are explained in Chapter VII, whatever the weaknesses that it entails. These are some areas that the researchers should investigate. Of course, there are roles that the Security Council and the UN General Assembly should play and these can be the stumbling blocks given particularly the composition and character of the Security Council.

I am writing this article under the circumstances of ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) day celebrations in Australia and New Zealand (25 April). During the Second World War, over 100,000 Australian soldiers unfortunately died when the country’s population was below six million. Today, the ANZAC day is celebrated for peace and not for war, while those soldiers and their families are memorialized. The main message is for peace and not for war.

It is to the credit of the UN that it initiated a UN Peace Keeping Force (PKF) for the first time in 1948 to observe and implement the Arab-Israel truce, although a PKF was not mentioned in the UN Charter. The UN can do the same or similar today by sending an all country (without of course America or Iran!) Peace Keeping Force to Strait of Hormuz to control the American and Iranian atrocities, war crimes and human rights violations.