Bertha von SUTTNER, who gave Nobel the idea of a
Peace Prize, always maintained that LAW, NOT FORCE
should govern conflicts between nations.
She must turn in her grave when the Peace Prize is
announced, for the majority of recipients have given no
proof of wishing to place law above force in the
establishment of peace, although a few like Henri La
Fontaine, John Boyd Orr, Linus Pauling, Philip Noël
Baker, and René Cassin were moving in that
direction.
- Sadat, Begin, Kissinger, Le Duc Tho were backed by
strong armies designed, as always, to impose peace by
force and not through law.
- Mother Teresa has never made proposals for peace,
although her marvelous work with people living and
dying in misery certainly deserves some Nobel Prize,
perhaps a prize for love among people.
- Esquirel did not uphold any peace plan when
claiming the Falklands for Argentina. He strengthened
the nationalism of a state, whereas hi should have
said that the islands belong to humanity as a whole
and should be place under the guardianship of the
United Nations.
- Walesa, brave champion of a trade unionism free
from government direction, and hence a strong
supporter of human rights, has also never put forward
a plan for peace between states.
- Finally there are organizations such as the
International Red Cross, which certainly bring help
when there is a war but which are not orientated
towards avoiding it, or like Amnesty international
which fight for human rights without being concerned
in the establishment of peace, or the International
Labor Office, which plays a social role without
helping to organize a state of peace.
"LAW, NOT FORCE, AMONG NATIONS" ought to be the
mention warranting the award of the Nobel Peace Prize,
but such promotion of the rule of law among states would
mean putting into question the very principle on which
states now are based : that of unconditional national
sovereignty.
It is a pity that those responsible for the award of
the Nobel Peace Prize do not from time to time read the
writings of Bertha von SUTTNER. the organization for
peace could be advanced and we might find the solutions
that will avoid the final suicide of the race through the
confrontation of Sovereign states.
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