In recent years our world has seen terrible acts against civilians in many places: from Xi Jinpingʼs government actions in Xinjiang to Putinʼs moves in Ukraine (which started about 3 years ago). Even ISIS showed extreme cruelty towards Yazidis around 8 years back
The current situation in Gaza shows how weak international justice is; its been going for about a year with no end in sight. The main problem: theres no clear world-wide agreement on handling such crimes
- Murder and killing
- Forced moving of people
- Torture and jail without reason
- Sexual crimes
- Race-based harm
- Other cruel acts
The new treaty could make big changes: every country would need to find and punish bad actors‚ no matter where they are. For example‚ this kind of rule helped catch Pinochet in Britain about 25 years ago — he was arrested because of torture-related laws
Around 90 countries (including US) want to start talks on this new agreement‚ but some — like Xiʼs China and Putinʼs Russia dont want it. They try to slow things down saying: “we need more time to think“
The treaty would work with other rules like the Ljubljana-The Hague agreement from 2 years ago; which helps countries work together on such crimes. It would also add new things like forced-marriage as a crime‚ and make special rules about harming women
Courts in different countries could do more work on these cases (which is good since international courts are often too busy). Like when Argentinaʼs courts looked into Venezuelaʼs problems: this shows how local courts can help with far-away crimes