Orville Taylor | WC, ICC and IC

Until the majority of a population has a belief that an overarching structure keeps them all in check, there will always be war.
Later today, the winner of the World Cup of Football will be celebrated in Español. Honestly, there is not that much difference between the two, given the role that they have both played in the African slave trade. Funny, inasmuch as the racist history of Argentina has now been blown open to public scrutiny, the Spanish did bring many of us here, long before the English. Moreover, the actions of the conquistadores, led by Cristoforo Colombo, caused the complete extermination of indigenous populations as a result of deliberate and consequential action of the invaders.
Those of us who speak about reparations for having been transplanted should also leave some space in the heart for the survivors of the indigenous Holocaust, where not only were the natives enslaved, but they were also systematically eliminated while their homeland was completely stolen from them.
Let this sink in: some academics estimate that around 56 million First Nationals were eradicated by the Spanish and Portuguese by the year 1600, just over a century after. In a world where ethnic cleansing, genocide, crimes against humanity, and other travesties are being exposed and punished, there is no space for selectiveness when severe inhumane treatment comes at the hands of other humans, especially when one of the motives is race, nationality, ethnicity, or religion.
To be historically accurate, the story of the Iberian Peninsula is a bit more interesting, if not complicated. Between 711 AD and 1492, when Colombo first left Spain, commissioned by Fernando and Isabel, the Moors, original occupants of Morocco, invaded and occupied Spain before being finally expelled.
And more intriguing, the Moors were dark-skinned even up to the time of Shakespeare.  An important difference between the Moorish conquest and that of the Europeans into the ‘New World’ was that the native Iberian population, the Caucasians, were not robbed of their culture or identity. Neither was there any deliberate process of extermination.
Indeed, the Moorish occupation had a major ‘civilising’ impact on the Spanish and Portuguese, bringing academics, mathematics and superior architecture, and engineering skills to those nations.
When they were finally ousted, the Moors left intact a well-established society with great infrastructure and wealth; a firm basis upon which, quite ironically, the Spanish and Portuguese later were able to build their empires.
For those of us who pay attention to history, it is difficult to dissociate everything that went on in the hundreds of years prior to the World Cup.  Therefore, it is impossible for patriots like me to have any appreciation beyond the football itself
Yet, even with the World Cup, there have been issues that seemed to defy logic. Not least of the transgressions, the unexplained celebration of FIFA boss Gianni Infantino at Argentina’s victories must raise questions about the equal application of rules for all participants. Hopefully, however, when the dust settles, and one of these Spanish-speaking nations grabs the cup for another time, the investigations will bring fruit
Beyond the World Cup, nonetheless, there is an urgent need for the greater enforcement of international rules and regulations. For all the criticism by the US, and a perhaps unwise public-opinion campaign against the International Criminal Court (ICC), an entity such as this is indispensable for international peace.
Like all human institutions, the ICC is imperfect, and some of the structural and other criticisms against it are, perhaps, justified. However, with 125 members, it is an entity that represents a majority of the world’s population
It is very significant that the ICC is strongly supported by almost all European nations and almost every single NATO country except the US. Very topical in recent years, because of warrants sent out for Israeli president Benjamin Netanyahu, a campaign has begun to diminish the ICC in the eyes of the rest of the world. One should recall that this very same ICC also has a warrant out for Vladimir Putin, president of Russia, antagonist in a war with Ukraine, where the Americans back the latter. A good dose of sauce for the goose makes absolute sense if we want international peace.
Moves have taken place to censor judges of the ICC and freeze their bank accounts over the issuing of warrants to Netanyahu. 
While the warrants might never get executed, the court might be needed at some point when it might suit the interests of the US or its ‘allies’.  Further, beyond the 125 members, most of the almost 200 nation-states globally, except Russia, China, the US, and Israel,  accept its jurisdiction.
Finally, even where the ICC does not have reach in a country, because it is not a member, if the alleged offence took place in a member nation, it has the power to act even if the offending nation or national is not a member.
With Palestine, Venezuela, Jordan, and Ukraine being members, it is indeed possible from a legal point of view for non-signatories to be properly charged despite being generally outside of the jurisdiction of the court. Nonetheless, if we really want a forum for the proper determination of the worst kinds of crimes against humanity in the contemporary world, something like the ICC needs to exist
Finally, there are local lessons to be learned regarding our own IC, the Integrity Commission. Like the ICC, it certainly is not perfect either. However, a precious entity in the oldest democracy in the hemisphere, its denigration serves no purpose other than to cause a population to lose faith in the process of justice.
Whether locally or globally, this is the antithesis of peace.

Orville Taylor is a senior lecturer at the Department of Sociology at The University of the West Indies, a radio talk-show host, and author of ‘Broken Promises, Hearts and Pockets’. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and tayloronblackline@hotmail.com.