Dennis Kucinich

1. What is your general view of the role of international law in U.S. foreign policy?
   
   Upon signing the charter of the United Nations the United States became not only bound by foreign law but also by domestic. The United States Constitution states in Article Six that any treaties signed become the Supreme Law of the Land. The time of the United States as a nation above nations needs to end. We need to work with the world community within international law. America needs to prove that we are willing to be a part of the process of international peace.

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2. Please provide an example of how this general view might play out in a specific policy context?
   
   America needs to stop the invasion and occupation of Iraq. This war is illegal both to the international community as well a violation the Constitution. Only by declaring an end to the occupation will the world community be willing to work with the United States.
   
   The United States needs to sign the Kyoto protocol, and implement the strategies outlined within.

3. What priorities or goals would you establish for the development of existing or new international legal regimes?
   
   Any new or existing legal regimes should start to take into account human rights, worker's rights, and environmental sustainability.
   
   

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4. What priorities would you set for Senate advice and consent on treaties currently lacking U.S. ratification?
   
   These are a high priority for the US, and need to be ratified in order to redeem our standing in the world as a moral and just nation.
   
   First, the United States needs to re- engage treaties that were abandoned by the Bush Administration, such as the UN charter. America also needs to affirm and ratify treaties beginning with, but not limited to:
   • The United Nations
   • The Kyoto Treaty on Global Climate Change
   • The Biodiversity Treaty
   • The Forest Protection Treaty
   • The Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty
   • The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
   • The Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty
   • The Land mine Ban Treaty
   • The Biological Weapons Convention
   • The Chemical Weapons Convention
   • The International Criminal Court

5. What would be your administration's international trade policy?
   
   Trade negations need to be made with worker's rights in mind. NAFTA and the WTO need to be abolished.
   
   NAFTA has resulted in a wage collapse in Mexico, and the loss of thousands of jobs in America. Meanwhile, because of the WTO, corporations have been granted unprecedented powers to sue the government in closed trade courts anytime laws designed to protect workers or the environment are deemed to infringe on corporate "rights.

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6. Would you seek any modification of existing trade agreements?
   
   Yes. I would cancel NAFTA and the WTO. Trade agreements need to be made with the rights of the workers, as well as environmental sustainability in mind. The travel and trade embargo on Cuba would be lifted, and China as a Most Favored Nation needs to be abolished.

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7. What would be your approach to the WTO and future global trade talks?
   
   Because the WTO does not allow for negotiation it needs to be ousted. The WTO and has obliterated jobs in this country, caused a wage collapse in Mexico, increased poverty worldwide, and fueled terrorism. The United States needs to leave the WTO, and any more trade agreements that are made need to have these considerations, as well as the environment, taken into account.

8. What should be the U.S. policy toward the ICC?
   
   The United States needs to be a part of the International Criminal Court, and be held accountable by it. Only the ICC presents a workable framework for the functioning of an international justice system which will affirm the basic human rights of all people of all nations. The ICC should be immediately signed along with a long list of other treaties that the Bush administration has ignored. It is time for the US to end its status as a nation above nations and be a nation among nations.

9. What would be your strategy for shoring up the Nuclear Non-Proliferation regime and regulation of other weapons of mass destruction?
   
   America should not be a nation above nations. The United States doesn't need 27,000 nuclear missiles. How can the United States expect other nations to disarm when we won't? The United States must abide by the principles of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, sign and enforce the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and revive the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. There needs to be more sweeping arms control measures. The United States needs to take all nuclear weapons off alert and persist toward total worldwide elimination of nuclear weapons.

10. What policies would you have toward global climate change regulation?
    
    The first act as President would be to support the Kyoto Treaty that Bush rejected. We must strengthen environmental laws and increase penalties on polluters. We should provide tax and other incentives to businesses that conserve energy, retrofit pollution prevention technologies, and redesign toxins out of their manufacturing processes. Nontoxic, safe substitutes for hazardous chemicals must become permanent

11. What are your views regarding the role of international law and institutions in shaping international efforts to combat terrorism?
    
    While we need to fight terrorism, the United States should never break international law, international humanitarian law, the Geneva conventions, the Hague conventions, or the United Nations Charter.
    
    The roots of terrorism lie in desperation. People with no hope resort to acts of indiscriminate violence. People with futures don't typically strap on bombs to kill others. We must all refrain from condoning some acts of violence as justified while similar actions by others are dismissed as "terrorism."
    
    World opinion, which fuels much of the terrorism against the United States and threats of terrorism, could easily be turned to America's advantage with less force and more diplomacy. The United States gives the least amount of international aid then any other industrialized nation. By giving aid, we can help to redeem how the rest of the world sees us, as well as by ending the illegal occupation of Iraq and joining the ICC. By reaching out and rejoining the world community, we can wage peace to simultaneously combat terrorism. The United States must develop a deep understanding of the cause-and-effect relationship between history and acts of terror.

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12. In this context, do you see a need to amend or modify the laws of war, including the Geneva Conventions?
    
    No.
    
    The Geneva Conventions outline what is and is not considered a crime against humanity.
    
    Torture and inhuman treatment of detainees in U.S. custody are war crimes under the Geneva Conventions and U.S. War Crimes Statute. International humanitarian law, as comprised of the Geneva Conventions and the Hague Conventions.
    
    The people who perpetrated and the 9/11 hijackings are war criminals. The United States should not become war criminals to follow them.
    
    The purpose of the United Nations was to create a lasting world peace, with regards to human life and war. There is no need to amend the laws of war. These laws are fundamental to our being.
    
    The Third Geneva convention states, among other things, that prisoner of war cannot be subjected to:
    • Willful killing, or causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health
    • Torture or inhumane treatment
    • Unlawful wanton destruction or appropriation of property
    • Forcing a prisoner of war to serve in the forces of a hostile power
    • Depriving a prisoner of war of a fair trial
    • Unlawful deportation, confinement or transfer
    These are fundamental to the health of society, and would constitute a breach in not only national and international law to break them, but a grave breech of human decency.

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13. What views do you have regarding any legal constraints on U.S. use of force?
    
    The United States was one of the first signers of the United Nations Charter. Harry Truman spoke of how the Charter would save millions of lives if the nations had "above all, the will to use it." The Geneva conventions outline the crimes of war as well as torture. The UN Charter states that there are times when a nation may use force: in self defense and when authorized by the UN Security Council.
    
    War and force have to be approved by Congress, as stated by Article One of the Constitution.
    
    These laws define what kinds of force is justifiable in the extreme case of war. These are human rights that are afforded to prisoners of war: the right to be free of torture or inhumane treatment. The laws state that it is not only morally abhorrent, but illegal to appropriate property or economical appropriation of resources. It is never morally justified to unlawfully deport, confine, or transfer prisoners of war.

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14. What are your views of the doctrine of pre-emptive use of force?
    
    As President, I will repeal the preemptive war doctrine. In Congress, I marshaled opposition to this doctrine from the beginning. It is a centerpiece of my campaign. When the President arrogates to himself the right to wage wars to "prevent" wars, as President Bush has done, he opens the door to aggression against any nation, for practically any reason he wants, and without evidence of a threat.
    
    Not only is the doctrine a clear affront to the United Nations Charter, by extension it is a violation on the United States Constitution. Again, because of Article Six in the Constitution that states that any treaty signed becomes the supreme law of the land, unless the war is authorized by the UN Security Council it is an illegal war.