Crucial remains the conviction that the government should serve the people and that its powers must be circumscribed by a Constitution and the rule o… - Alfred-Maurice de Zayas

In order to help the rule of law evolve into the rule of justice, we must demand our right to access to information, we must adopt a Charter of Rights of Whistleblowers, demand transparency and accountability from our governments, and ensure that Parliaments revisit obsolete laws that perpetuate injustice. We must remain vigilant to ensure that the rule of justice is built day by day and that our courts and tribunals apply the existing legislation in good faith and not in the service of corporations and special interests, who do not want rights – but only privileges.

If you censor yourself, if you cannot articulate your needs, if you cannot articulate your priorities, then whatever you do, putting a little cross in a ballot box, etc, does not represent your view. It is an act of desperation.

The Ukraine end-game becomes more dangerous by the day, and many experts in the US realize that Ukraine cannot win. Nevertheless, NATO and EU escalate further at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian lives, sacrificed on the altar of US and NATO expansion. The Western indifference to death reminds me of Madeleine Albright’s cynical assessment that toppling Saddam Hussein was worth the lives of 500,000 Iraqi children (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tihL1lMLL0). Some in the Biden administration pretend that they can still snatch victory out of the jaws of defeat. At best we can hope for a frozen conflict, which, alas, can break out into renewed hostilities. At worst, we face nuclear Apocalypse. The long-term consequences of the conflict are not limited to Ukraine. The question arises about the viability of existing international institutions like the United Nations and the International Criminal Court, which have allowed themselves to be hijacked by the US for its geopolitical agenda. NATO’s policies have seriously damaged our faith in the system of international law, diplomatic law and international criminal law, which functioned – albeit with difficulties -- before the orgy of treaty-violations, sanctions regimes and blockades that have upended Rechtssicherheit, international trade, supply chains and rendered the sustainable development goals unattainable. The use of indiscriminate weapons including drones, cluster bombs and depleted uranium have done long-term damage to international humanitarian law. Another US fantasy: the piecemeal absorption of Ukraine into NATO, which Russia will counter, because it cannot allow the use of Ukrainian territory as a springboard for renewed proxy wars. It seems that the US, not Russia, has deliberately thrown the Westphalian system of law and diplomacy out of the window.