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crimes against humanity

Thursday April 28, 2022

April 28, 2022 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 28, 2022

UN ambassador Bob Rae condemns Security Council veto after historic General Assembly vote

September 29, 2012

Canada joined more than 100 global allies Tuesday in subjecting a paralyzed United Nations Security Council to more public scrutiny, while the Ukrainian government praised a Canadian senator for pushing forward with a new, tougher sanctions law.

Bob Rae, the Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, denounced as undemocratic the Security Council’s veto power as the General Assembly voted to subject the world’s most powerful body to more public scrutiny.

The General Assembly adopted a consensus motion that would require any of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the council — Russia, the United States, China, France and Britain — to appear before the 193-country assembly to justify its decision.

The move doesn’t get rid of the council’s controversial veto power, but with Russia threatening to continue using it to prevent action against its war on Ukraine, Rae said the historic vote sends a signal that the world will be watching.

March 4, 2020

“The veto power that is held by the five permanent members of the Security Council is as anachronistic as it is undemocratic,” Rae said in explaining Canada’s support.

At the UN, Tuesday’s unprecedented motion seeks to hold Russia to account politically if it uses its veto. The new motion requires the General Assembly “to hold a debate on the situation” that gives rise to any council veto within 10 working days and for the country that uses it to be among the first to speak.

Representatives from Russia and Belarus spoke against the motion, but they were countered by the envoys of dozens of countries that sponsored the motion, which was led by tiny Lichtenstein and included Canada.

From the floor of the assembly, Rae delivered a blistering condemnation of a broken UN system that he said was enabling what he called a shameful and illegal act of aggression by Russia against Ukraine.

April 24, 2002

Rae said the recent deadlock over Ukraine has happened when the world most needs the Security Council.

“We’re watching the destruction of cities. We’re watching the killing of women and children. We’re seeing the destruction of an entire infrastructure of a country and we’re seeing a country fight back. The Security Council may not be able to act. That doesn’t prevent us from having an ability to act,” Rae said.

Rae and the world’s diplomats were speaking as Russian bombs continued pounding the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, large swaths of which have been reduced to rubble in a war that has killed thousands of Ukrainian civilians and forced millions to flee their homes.

April 12, 2022

“The use and threat of the veto in situations where atrocity crimes are being perpetrated in Syria and Myanmar, and Mariupol, for example, or in situations where a permanent member of the Security Council has launched a war of aggression against another UN member state, as the Russian Federation is now doing in Ukraine, are not only shameful, they are also contrary to obligations under the UN Charter and to international law.” (The Globe & Mail) 

 

Posted in: International Tagged: 2022-14, Boris Johnson, China, crimes against humanity, Emmanuel Macron, France, International, Joe Biden, Russia, security council, UK, Ukraine, UN, United Nations, USA, Uyghur, veto, Vladimir Putin, world, Xi Jinping

Friday December 18, 2020

December 24, 2020 by Graeme MacKay

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 18, 2020

Hold Iran accountable for Flight PS752

As this terrible year of COVID-19 lurches to a close, Canadians should remember another, entirely separate tragedy that started it off.

January 9, 2020

One hundred and seventy-six innocent people — most of them either Canadians or travelling to Canada — were slaughtered by the Iranian military on Jan. 8 when it blasted the civilian plane in which they were travelling out of the skies.

There has been no justice for the dead in the 12 months that have passed since then. There has been no justice for the families and friends they left behind. As for the duplicitous, obstructive Iranian regime that was behind this atrocity, it has refused to admit it is responsible or can be held accountable.

At the very least, the report by former federal cabinet minister Ralph Goodale that was filed with the Canadian government this week should remind everyone in this country of the crime that was committed against so many Canadians and people with ties to Canada. Goodale’s findings should convince us, too, that Canada must push relentlessly for justice.

January 10, 2020

When Iranian missiles downed Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS752 in the second week of January, the entire region was on high alert. Just four hours earlier, Iran had fired missiles at American military positions in Iraq in retaliation for the Jan. 4 American air strike that had killed a senior Iranian general.

In the midst of this ongoing conflict, Flight PS752 should never have been cleared for takeoff from the airport in Iran’s capital city of Tehran. But it was, and three minutes later, it was destroyed by two Iranian missiles. Every one of the 176 people aboard that plane died, and of those victims, 55 were Canadian citizens, 30 were permanent residents of Canada and 53 were not Canadians but travelling to this country, many as students.

January 15, 2020

For three days after the downing of Flight PS752, Iran’s authoritarian leaders denied Iran’s involvement in the disaster, suggesting mechanical failure was to blame. Then, when emerging evidence exposed the falsehood of their denials, they admitted their missiles had destroyed the plane but attributed it to a “human error” committed by a single, Iranian mobile air defence operator. After that, it took the Iranians six months to turn over the downed jet’s flight recorders for outside examination.

If Goodale’s report does nothing else, it proves Iran’s leaders lied, withheld vital evidence and attempted a crass, cruel coverup. Instead of human error, Goodale uncovered “indications of incompetence, recklessness and wanton disregard for innocent human life” on the part of the Iranians.

January 8, 2020

Out of all the troubling questions that still demand answers, the Iranian government must explain why it left open its airspace for civilian flights, such as PS752, even after it had begun its missile barrage. That decision strongly suggests an attempt to conceal Iran’s aerial assault from the Americans — even if it meant using the passengers of PS752 as sacrificial lambs.

It won’t be easy to force Iran’s rulers to accept accountability for what they did. Canada must keep trying. To maintain its pressure, the federal government should, as Conservative MP Michael Chong is urging, impose sanctions on Iranian leaders and list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. 

In addition, aware that Iran’s own investigation of the disaster — and itself — is a sham, Canada should persuade the international community to require independent reviews of all future tragedies that involve military strikes on civilian aircraft.

As for the rest of us, the best we can do is remember the dead of PS752 and keep calling for justice. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial) 

 

Posted in: Canada, International Tagged: 2020-43, accountability, airline, Canada, cleric, crimes against humanity, Flight PS752, Iran, Ralph Goodale, terror, terrorism, transparency

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This website contains satirical commentaries of current events going back several decades. Some readers may not share this sense of humour nor the opinions expressed by the artist. To understand editorial cartoons it is important to understand their effectiveness as a counterweight to power. It is presumed readers approach satire with a broad minded foundation and healthy knowledge of objective facts of the subjects depicted.

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