In the Absence of International Justice and a Single Standard
When the United Nations Charter was established after World War II, the vision was grand: a world without wars, justice without discrimination, and a single scale weighing the rights of all peoples. But eighty years later, it seems that this scale has broken, weighing only the interests of the powerful.
There is a truth that no one can deny today: the world operates without international justice and without a single standard governing everyone. Laws exist on paper, and international charters fill libraries, but they are applied only to the weak. The strong, however, do as they please without accountability.
When the United Nations was founded in 1945, its promise was clear: equality among peoples, the prohibition of aggression, and the protection of human rights everywhere. But what has happened after eighty years? We now have an international system managed by only five countries, each holding veto power. A single state can overturn the will of the entire world with a stroke of a pen. What kind of justice grants five individuals the power to derail the fate of eight billion people?
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The absence of a single standard is the primary cause of the chaos we witness. There is one standard applied to the allies of major powers, and another applied to their adversaries. When a state occupies the territory of another in Europe, it is labeled aggression that must be resisted, and sanctions are imposed immediately. When another state occupies the land of another people for decades in the Middle East, it is termed a "complex conflict," and the victim is urged to exercise restraint. This blatant double standard is visible to a child before it is recognized by an expert.
The issue extends beyond politics into economics and humanity. When poor countries delay debt repayment, they are besieged, starved, and subjected to harsh reform programs. Meanwhile, when wealthy countries print trillions of dollars without backing, it is called prudent monetary policy. The blood of victims is also not valued equally: the killing of a citizen in the West shakes the world, while the killing of thousands in the Global South does not even warrant a breaking news alert.
The most dangerous consequence of the absence of justice is the collapse of trust. How can we ask young people in any country to believe in international law when they see it applied with two different standards? How can we ask them to seek recourse in international courts when they know these courts cannot approach the powerful? The inevitable result is that this generation loses faith in everything, believing that only power protects rights.
To be fair, the world does not need to invent new justice; it needs to apply existing justice equally to all. We want a single scale that makes no distinction based on color, race, religion, or interest. If occupation of land is a crime, it is a crime everywhere. If killing children is a crime, it is a crime at all times. If the right of peoples to self-determination is a sacred right, it is sacred for all peoples without exception.
We do not demand an ideal world without conflicts, as that is impossible. But we demand a single standard. A scale that, if it condemns occupation in Europe, condemns it in the Middle East. If it condemns the killing of civilians in one place, it condemns it everywhere. If it calls for the trial of a war criminal in Africa, it calls for the trial of a war criminal on any other continent.
The continuation of this situation threatens not only weak states but the entire global peace. The injustice accumulating today without accountability will explode tomorrow in the face of everyone. History has taught us that empires did not fall because their enemies were strong, but because they lost their internal justice.
Reforming international justice is not an intellectual luxury; it is a condition for the world's continued security. The injustice that goes unchecked today in a distant place will return tomorrow to knock on everyone's door. History clearly tells us: when the single scale disappears, the scale of chaos takes over to govern everyone.
The call for a single balance is not an emotional slogan, but the last lifeline for this world before it sinks into the law of the jungle.
A Bahraini writer
