Thanks to you guys we’ve finally hit 750,000 subscribers.
That’s about the population of Bhutan!
Now, you know we love hearing all of your ideas.
And some of you have been asking for this video for a very, very, very long time.
So, as a thank you for sticking with us, we wanna know what you wanna know: what are America’s
violations of international law?
Well, international law is a little tricky.
Within a country, law is based on government-sanctioned rules.
However, there is no world government to dictate the world’s rules.
At best, there are international treaties and agreements.
But the United States has refused to ratify the Rome Statute, the Vienna Convention, and
a number of nuclear weapon and landmine bans.
So, how do you prosecute a country for violating a treaty it never signed?
Well, disputes concerning the limitation of rights between sovereign countries fall under
supranational law, or law that is not bound by a country’s borders.
One of the only recognized bodies to judge supranational disputes is the United Nations’
International Court of Justice.
Since the ICJ’s creation in 1946, the United States has been named as a respondent in thirteen
cases.
The majority have been clarifications on existing laws and treaties, or the ICJ simply lacked
jurisdiction.
But in 1986, Nicaragua filed suit against the United States, alleging that the US had
supported the Contra rebellion against the Nicaraguan government.
The US had also planted naval mines in Nicaragua’s territorial waters.
In fact, there was ample evidence that the Contras were a CIA funded and trained rebel
group, established by President Ronald Reagan’s Administration.
To fund the Contras, the US sold weapons to Iran, and assisted in the Colombian cocaine
trade.
The ICJ found that the US had grossly violated international law, and Nicaragua’s sovereignty.
Nicaragua asked for $17 billion dollars in reparations.
In response, the United States withdrew its broad support of the International Court of
Justice, and as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, vetoed any attempts at
enforcing the ICJ’s judgment.
To this day, Nicaragua has seen no compensation.
Roughly two years later, the United States Navy shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft
flying in Iranian airspace. 290 people died, marking the 9th worst aviation incident in
history.
Iran filed suit against the US in 1989.
But in 1996 the two countries reached an agreement.
The US would pay roughly $62 million dollars to the victim’s families, in exchange for
absolving them of any legal guilt.
To this day, the US has not publicly apologized to Iran.
The next important ruling against the US occurred in 1999, when the US executed two German nationals
for killing a man during a failed bank robbery.
When arrested, the Germans were not informed of their ability to seek help from their consulate,
as is required by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.
In 2001 the ICJ ruled that the US had violated the Convention.
The US promised to never do it again.
Roughly two years later, Mexico filed suit against the US for violating that same exact
portion of the Vienna Convention.
The US had arrested and sentenced 54 Mexican nationals to death without immediately letting
the Mexican consulate know.
The ICJ again found the US guilty.
This time, the US was required to review and reconsider all the convictions of Mexican
nationals, and they were also responsible for making sure it never happened again.
In response, the US withdrew from the portion of the Vienna Convention that required them
to adhere to the ICJ’s ruling.
It should be clear by now that in spite of international law, the United States has been
able to avoid repercussions due to its powerful status in the global community.
Still, the US is far from the only violator, with many countries coming together to create
a dangerous state of world affairs.
Without international courts, it could just be a whole lot worse.
Thanks so much for sticking with us, next stop: one million subscribers!
And you can bet we’ll have a fun video for you when the time comes.
For now, you can continue learning about America’s darker history by watching this video on which
countries America has invaded.
Thanks again for watching TestTube News, don’t forget to like and subscribe, and we’ll
see you back here soon.