The following article was published in the January 2026 issue of the International Review of Contemporary Law, the journal of the IADL, focusing on the 80th anniversary of the UN Charter. Below is the English translation of the French original.
“We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians” – Nelson Mandela
For peace through law / Against peace through force
80 years after the great victory over Nazism, which sought to dominate the world, and the proclamation of the Charter of “We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war…”, the doomsday clock has been set to 85 seconds to midnight since January 26, 2026, according to the press release below.
Alfred Einstein, a man of peace, must be turning in his grave.
“January 27, 2026 – The Doomsday Clock has been set to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been to midnight in its history. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and Security Board (SASB), which sets the clock, has called for urgent action to limit nuclear arsenals, establish international guidelines on AI use, and form multilateral agreements to address global biological threats.”
The call in the statement for urgent action is fully justified.
Regarding nuclear arsenals, it is important to recall that after the United States withdrew from the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty in 2002; the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019; and the Open Skies Treaty in 2020, the New START Treaty (Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms) is the last treaty on nuclear arsenal control and limitation binding the United States and Russia. Unless the United States agrees to extend it, as Russia proposed last September, it will expire on February 5, 2026.
The expiration of this treaty will negatively affect the implementation of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which aims to reduce the risk of the spread of nuclear weapons worldwide.
The “Board of Peace”, with a budget higher than that of the UN, which was launched and its charter signed on January 22, 2026, whose President Trump is limited only by his own morality and mind (see the New York Times of January 8), like the “rules-based order” serving NATO, which distinguished itself by its “double standards,” could not turn back the clock by a single second?
Both aim to impose peace through hegemonic, military, and economic force and are incompatible with collective security as defined by the United Nations Charter.
There is still time for the proponents of enforcing peace by force, who have put the people of the world 85 seconds away from a third nuclear world war, to return to peace through law and comply with international law based on the United Nations Charter. They may yet receive a Nobel Peace Prize or perhaps an amnesty.
In these times of great threats, of aggressive war, of occupations, of partition, of ethnic cleansing, of genocide, of misery, of precarious ceasefires, of capitalism in decline and its empire, and of a world in upheaval, it is urgent, as Monique and Roland Weyl said, to “Take international law out of the closet.”
But in these times when the global South defends the United Nations Charter;
In these times when an overwhelming majority of the United Nations General Assembly votes for a Palestinian state.
In these times when global public opinion is united as one woman or one man in solidarity with the Palestinian people on their long road to freedom, we can do nothing but quote Mandela.
“We know very well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.”
We can say with him and transpose today, after the damage of the ending unipolar period, that we know very well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of all oppressed peoples and nationalities (Palestinians, as well as Syrians, Yemenis, Lebanese, Kurds, Iranians, Libyans, Afghans, Venezuelans, Cubans, Colombians, Greenlanders, etc…)
Our freedom is not complete without the freedom of oppressed migrants and refugees worldwide.
Our freedom is not complete when Renee Good and Alex Pretti lose their lives to ICE bullets in Minneapolis, or when George Floyd can no longer breathe under the knee of a police officer who ‘seems’ to have a heart of ice.
Long live the fights to defend and full implementation of international law based on the UN Charter and Human Rights Charter that both enshrined the right of people to self-determination.
We thank all those who celebrated with IADL and its Review the 80th anniversary of the United Nations Charter through their contributions.
For technical reasons, contributions related to the International Conference of Nice will be the subject of a second publication and will be ready for publication at the end of February.
Professor Robert Charvin
Walid Okais
30 January 2026
All articles published in the International Review of Contemporary Law reflect only the position of their author and not the position of the journal, nor of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.