Petition on Behalf of the Children of Iraq Submitted to the United Nations Charging President Bush and U.S. Authorities Actions Constitute Acts of Genocide

Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ), Fall, 2001 by Francis Boyle

(31.) The same principles of international criminal law have been incorporated into the municipal legal systems of almost all States in the World Community today. Wherefore, there is universality of jurisdiction for any State to prosecute Respondent George Bush for committing genocide against the Applicants, The 4.5 Million Children of Iraq. Like unto a pirate, the Respondent George Bush is host is humani generis -- the enemy of all humankind.

IV. COMPETENCE

(32.) Article I of the Genocide Convention makes it quite clear that all 99 states that are Contracting Parties have an international legal obligation "to prevent" the commission of genocide against Applicants, The 4.5 million children of Iraq.

(33.) Article VIII of the Genocide Convention provides that any Contracting Party "may call upon the competent organs of the United Nations to take such action under the Charter of the United Nations as they consider appropriate for the prevention and suppression of acts of genocide ..."

(34.) Thus, all 99 states parties to the Genocide Convention have both the right and the duty under international law to bring the genocidal situation in Iraq to the attention of the entire United Nations Organization, as well as its affiliated organizations such as UNESCO, UNICEF, etc.

(35.) The Genocide Convention expressly confers international legal competence upon all organs of the United Nations--including the Security Council, the Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly, the Secretary General, the International Court of Justice, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, UNESCO, UNICEF, etc. -- to do something about the genocidal situation in Iraq. But so far, such individual steps and collective actions by Member States have not been taken for fear of running afoul of the all-powerful Respondents, who represent and constitute the only self-styled "superpower" sitting as one of the five Permanent Members of the Security Council.

(36.) The Respondents bear ultimate legal responsibility for the imposition of economic sanctions upon Iraq and therefore for the international crime of genocide against Applicants, The 4.5 Million Children of Iraq.

(37.) Under the current desperate circumstances, responsible officials of Member States permitting the continuation of economic sanctions against Iraq could commit the separate international crime of "complicity" in the crime of genocide that is today being inflicted upon the Applicants by the Respondents, in violation of Article III(e) of the Genocide Convention.

V. JURISDICTION

(38.) That the organs and agencies of the United Nations, including the Secretary General, the Economic and Social Council, the General Assembly, the Human Rights Commission, the Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities, UNESCO and UNICEF, inter alia, have the jurisdiction to receive and hear this Indictment, Complaint and Petition, and to provide the Relief requested herein.