Articles and letters may be edited for the purposes of clarity and space. They are published in good faith with a view to enlightening all the stakeholders. However, the contents of these writings may not necessarily match the views of the newspaper.
Is int’l law a true law?
International law is the set of rules and norms that have moral and legal binding on all the states or on the global level. But the question that arises here is whether international law is true law or not. Does it have all the features that need to be possessed by any rule to ascend to the level of international law? There is a great deal of debate over this because of the divergent definitions of the word law by various jurists. To understand the true status of international law, we first need to get to the depth of definition of the law.
There are many jurists who have defined law in different ways among which the definition of two jurists gained popularity. John Austin defined law as “the command of sovereign attended by sanctions”. While Professor Oppenheim stated the law as “law is the body of rules for human conduct within a community, which by the common consent of the community can be enforced by an external power”.
So, for Austin’s school of thought international law doesn’t hold the two requirements a law should have, but for the second school of thought, international law today is possessing all the essential characteristics a law should have. So, this puzzle is yet to be resolved.
Apart from the debate over the status of international law being a true law or not, there is no effective body for legislation and implementation. There is no central and sovereign authority over the states to enforce the law in a true and proper sense. Due to this aspect, international law is considered as a weak law according to Starke. In addition to this, it does not have its obligation over different important aspects such as asylum, human rights, etc.
MEEQAT NAEEM ABBASI
Islamabad
Thumbs
up for the hero hope
I’m proud of Chin’ono who won a prestigious CNN-sponsored African Journalist of the Year competition for an uncompromising documentary examining his troubled country’s struggle against corruption. He received the latest award from the Emir (King) of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in the presence of the United Nations Special Advocate for the Prevention of Corruption on the 8th of December 2022.
This is an important milestone not just for him, but for country which is struggling to move ahead because of unprecedented looting of public funds and abuse of the judiciary. Hopewell Chin’ono has dedicated this award to all the victims of corruption in Zimbabwe who have died because there was no medication in hospitals, and the 2500 women who die annually because there are no maternity theaters, and those who die from cancer because there is no radiotherapy machine.
Chin’ono has been in and out of prison over frivolous charges emanating from just tweeting and exposing corruption. The sad thing is that corruption in Zimbabwe still exists, because the ongoing arbitrary detention of Citizen Coalition of Change MPs Job Sikhala and Sithole is unjust and abusive.
It has caused unspeakable emotional distress to them and their families. Sikhala and Sithole were arrested on 14 June 2022 after attending the funeral of political activist, Moreblessing Ali, who was missing for three weeks before being found murdered and her body mutilated on 11 June 2022. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has failed to effectively lead Zimbabwe into prosperity and therefore he should be removed or resound outsted in 2023 votes.
KUDZAI CHIKOWORE
London
Street crimes in Karachi
Karachi stands as the capital city of Sindh and the largest city of Pakistan but still it has worst security as every now and then cases of mugging, burglary and assaults are reported. The crime index of Karachi is 53.69 percent. In comparison with other cities of Pakistan street crime has the highest number in Karachi.
Unfortunately, 350 people lost their lives in mugging within eight months. Maintenance of these crimes shows that authorities are not concerned in way they need to be. Keeping in sight criminal and political violence that includes armed carjacking, robbery, kidnapping and daily murders, authorities need to be on high alert and more cops must be hired on mugging spots and more CCTV cameras must be fixed so that citizens can feel safer. Apart from that, the government must provide job offers to end poverty because this is the reason that enforce people to commit crimes.
ZAINAB ALIAHMED
Via email
Climate change
Heat-waves, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts and floods all are indicators of climate change. Climate change is the sudden change in temperature which would be a long-term change in weather. Climate change results in melting glaciers, ice-caps and increasing sea levels. This climatic change is a huge threat to the world as this situation is very alarming. Therefore it is time to seriously think and work on it.
Scientist says there’s a 95% chance that human activity is the cause behind climate change. People have been burning more and more fossil fuels like oil and coal which release Carbon monoxide to power our homes, factories, airplanes and cars. Moreover, the global population has tripled in the past 70 years and people are consuming more products from animals that release another pollutant called Methane. So all these gases are in the air and when the sunlight gets into the earth’s atmosphere, some of the heat gets trapped and the planet gets warmer.
The world’s climate crisis is a real-time Earth rupture of daily lives and livelihood, destruction of ecological habitats and resources, loss of critical ecosystems and interdependent non-human and human ecologies. A lot of factors are causing a sudden change in temperature which is having a huge negative impact on the whole world and it is a very serious and threatening situation globally. The first and the major cause of climate change is pollution. The increasing pollution day by day is causing a major change in the climate.
IQRA MUNIR
Islamabad
