INTERNATIONAL LAW

World War II,

World War II or the Second World War, was a worldwide military conflict which lasted from 1939 to 1945. World War II was the amalgamation of two conflicts, one starting in Asia, 1937, as the Second Sino-Japanese War and the other beginning in Europe, 1939, with the invasion of Poland.

This global conflict split a majority of the world's nations into two opposing camps: the Allies and the Axis. Spanning much of the globe, World War II resulted in the deaths of over 60 million people, making it the deadliest conflict in human history.^[1]

World War II was the most widespread war in history, and countries involved mobilized more than 100 million military personnel. Total war erased the distinction between civil and military resources and saw the complete activation of a nation's economic, industrial, and scientific capabilities for the purposes of the war effort; nearly two-thirds of those killed in the war were civilians. For example, nearly 11 million of the civilian casualties were victims of the Holocaust, which was largely conducted in Eastern Europe.

The conflict ended in an Allied victory. As a result, the United States and Soviet Union emerged as the world's two leading superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War for the next 45 years. Self determination gave rise to decolonization/independence movements in Asia and Africa, while Europe itself began traveling the road leading to integration.

International Organizations

·       Treaty of Versailles (1919) was the peace treaty which officially ended World War I between the Allied and Associated Powers and Germany. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial provisions required Germany and its allies to accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-248, disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Allies. The Treaty was undermined by subsequent events starting as early as 1922 and was widely flouted by the mid thirties.

·       League of Nations was an international organization founded as a result of the Paris Peace Conference in 1919–1920. The League's goals included disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation diplomacy and improving global welfare. The United Nations Organization replaced it after the end of the war and inherited a number of agencies and organizations founded by the League.

·       International Labour Organization (ILO): ILO is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Founded in 1919, it was formed through the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles, and was initially an agency of the League of Nations. It became a member of the UN system after the demise of the League and the formation of the UN at the end of World War II.

·       The United Nations (UN) is an international organization whose stated aims are to facilitate cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress and human rights issues. It was founded in 1945 to replace the League of Nations, in the hope that it would intervene in conflicts between nations and thereby avoid war. The organization began with fifty countries signing the United Nations Charter. The organization's structure still reflects in some ways the circumstances of its founding. The five permanent members of the UN Security Council, each of which has veto power on any UN resolution, are the main victors of World War II or their successor states: China, France, Russia, Great Britain, and the United States.  As of 2007, there are 192 United Nations member states, encompassing almost every recognized independent state. From its headquarters in New York City, the UN and its specialized agencies decide on substantive and administrative issues in regular meetings held throughout each year. The organization is divided into administrative bodies, including the General Assembly, Security Council, Economic and Social Council, Secretariat, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Additional bodies deal with the governance of all other UN System agencies, such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The UN's most visible public figure is the Secretary-General. The current Secretary-General is Ban Ki-moon of South Korea, who assumed the post on 1 January 2007.

·       The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health Organization, which had been an agency of the League of Nations.

·       The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is one of the specialized agencies of the United Nations. WIPO was created in 1967 with the stated purpose "to encourage creative activity, [and] to promote the protection of intellectual property throughout the world". WIPO currently has 184 member states, administers 23 international treaties, and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland

·       United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter. UNESCO has 192 Member States and 6 Associate Members. The organization is based in Paris, with over 50 field offices and several institutes and offices throughout the world. Most of the field offices are "cluster" offices covering three or more countries; there are also national and regional offices. UNESCO pursues its action through five major programmes: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information. Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes; international science programmes; the promotion of independent media and freedom of the press; regional and cultural history projects, the promotion of cultural diversity; international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights; and attempts to bridge the world-wide digital divide.

·       The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an international organization designed to supervise and liberalize international trade. The WTO came into being on January 1, 1995, and is the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), which was created in 1947, and continued to operate for almost five decades as a de facto international organization. WTO deals with the rules of trade between nations at a near-global level; it is responsible for negotiating and implementing new trade agreements, and is in charge of policing member countries' adherence to all the WTO agreements, signed by the bulk of the world's trading nations and ratified in their parliaments. Most of the WTO's current work comes from the 1986-94 negotiations called the Uruguay Round, and earlier negotiations under the GATT. The organization is currently the host to new negotiations, under the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) launched in 2001. The WTO is governed by a Ministerial Conference, which meets every two years; a General Council, which implements the conference's policy decisions and is responsible for day-to-day administration; and a director-general, who is appointed by the Ministerial Conference. The WTO's headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland

·       The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an international organization that oversees the global financial system by observing exchange rates and balance of payments, as well as offering financial and technical assistance. Its headquarters are located in Washington, D.C., USA.

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an advisory declaration adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. It consists of 30 articles which outline the view of the United Nations General Assembly on the human rights* guaranteed to all people.

(Human rights) refer to "the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled, often held to include the right to life and liberty, freedom of thought and expression, and equality before the law.” The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states, "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood."

New York Convention 1958

The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (also known as the New York Convention; the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards; and the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards) was signed in 10 June 1958 and entered into force, 7 June 1959. The Convention applies to the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards made in the territory of a State other than the State where the recognition and enforcement of such awards are sought. It applies to arbitral awards not considered as domestic awards in the State where their recognition and enforcement is sought. Other international conventions also apply to the cross border enforcement of arbitration awards, but the New York Convention is by far the most widely adopted and the most important.

European Union

The European Union (EU) is made up of twenty-seven European countries. It was established as the European Economic Community in 1957 by the Treaty of Rome and has undergone many changes since, most notably in 1993 by the Maastricht Treaty. Since 1957 new accessions have raised the number of member states, and powers have expanded. As a result, the EU can be described as both a supranational and an intergovernmental body.  Important EU institutions and bodies include the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union, including the European Council, the European Court of Justice and the European Central Bank. Citizens of EU member states are also EU citizens. EU citizens directly elect the European Parliament every five years. EU citizens can freely invest, live, travel, and work in other member states (with some temporary restrictions on new member states). Passport control and customs checks between most member states were abolished in the Schengen Agreement.

East African Community

The East African Community (EAC) is an intergovernmental organisation with plans to form a country called East African Federation  with one President by 2010 ruling over what were countries of Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and Rwanda. Currently, members of EAC are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda.The first major step in establishing the East African Federation is customs union in East Africa signed in March 2004 and commenced on 1 January 2005. Under the terms of the treaty, Kenya, the biggest exporters of the three countries, will pay duty on its goods entering Uganda and Tanzania until 2010 based on a declining scale. A common system of tariffs will apply to other countries supplying the three countries with goods. EAC was originally founded in 1967, but collapsed in 1977.