Contingent Sovereignty!

Below is the text from Wikipedia regarding the concept of contingent sovereignty. It is still evolving and currently not codified in international law. In my opinion the concept of absolute sovereignty is the national equivalent of the individual ego and as such needs to be recognized, honored, and refocused in light of the Love of creation.

"Contingent sovereignty refers to the new and still evolving theory which challenges the norm of non-intervention in the internal affairs of countries, commonly associated with the Westphalian doctrine of sovereignty.

Stewart Patrick of the United States State Department has described the contingent sovereignty as follows.

Historically, the main obstacle to armed intervention-humanitarian or otherwise- has been the doctrine of sovereignty, which prohibits violating the territorial integrity of another state. One of the striking developments of the past decade has been an erosion of this non-intervention norm and the rise of a nascent doctrine of "contingent sovereignty".

This school of thought holds that sovereign rights and immunities are not absolute. They depend on the observance of fundamental state obligations. These include the responsibility to protect the citizens of the state. When a regime makes war on its people or cannot prevent atrocities against them, it risks forfeiting its claim to non-intervention. In such circumstances, the responsibility to protect may devolve to the international community.

This emerging consensus reflects the traumas of the twentieth century. The seminal event was the Holocaust, but it was hardly the last to shock the conscience of humankind. From the killing fields of Cambodia to the bloody hills of Rwanda, a litany of atrocities has mocked our earnest, repeated pledges of "Never Again".

Following the NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described what he termed a "developing international norm...that massive and systematic violations of human rights wherever they may take place...should not be allowed to stand." No longer should frontiers be considered an absolute defense behind which states can commit crimes against humanity with "sovereign impunity."'

Couldn't have said it better myself. I do hope that although not currently codified into international law that this concept will get the attention it, and creation, deserves. My only comments would be two. One is that this does sound so much like the concept of an international bill of rights I mentioned in the last post. And secondly, it should be pretty obvious that this litany of atrocities is not limited to the twentieth century. This has been the history of mans inhumanity to man. The fate of the conquered by the victors. The difference is that IN THIS ERA we as an international community, or maybe better stated Global Community CAN DO SOMETHING about the litany. On this day before the celebration of Easter, I pray that God will guide such a refocus in the spirit of the truly risen Pax Christi. Amen! RV P.S.- That word used in the passage above -nascent- is a new one to me. I love it and hope it refers to much in this emerging era. It means "Being born; coming into existence".