There are fires burning in the forests of Indonesia that are emitting more carbon dioxide than the US does. Not only are the trees and other vegetation burning, but the underlying peat is burning as well. The smoke pervades Indonesia and spreads to Singapore and Malaysia as well. The threat to endangered animal species is quite high, as is the threat to human lives. The last time fires were as widespread in Indonesia as they are today, 17,000 children died from the effects of the smoke.
The Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague has ruled in favor of the case submitted by the Philippines concerning maritime claims in the South China Sea and has accepted jurisdiction on the case. The ruling is a setback to China which had claimed that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter, and China had not submitted any materials to the court disputing the case bright by the Philippines. China rested its refusal on Article 298 of the UN Conference of the Sea which reads, in part:
“Article 298. Optional exceptions to applicability of section 2
“1. When signing, ratifying or acceding to this Convention or at any time thereafter, a State may, without prejudice to the obligations arising under section 1, declare in writing that it does not accept any one or more of the procedures provided for in section 2 with respect to one or more of the following categories of disputes:
(a)
(i) disputes concerning the interpretation or application of articles 15, 74 and 83 relating to sea boundary delimitations, or those involving historic bays or titles, provided that a State having made such a declaration shall, when such a dispute arises subsequent to the entry into force of this Convention and where no agreement within a reasonable period of time is reached in negotiations between the parties, at the request of any party to the dispute, accept submission of the matter to conciliation under Annex V, section 2; and provided further that any dispute that necessarily involves the concurrent consideration of any unsettled dispute concerning sovereignty or other rights over continental or insular land territory shall be excluded form such submission;
(ii) after the conciliation commission has presented its report, which shall state the reasons on which it is based, the parties shall negotiate an agreement on the basis of that report; if these negotiations do not result in an agreement, the parties shall, by mutual consent, submit the question to one of the procedures provided for in section 2, unless the parties otherwise agree;
(iii) this subparagraph does not apply to any sea boundary dispute finally settled by an arrangement between the parties, or to any such dispute which is to be settled in accordance with a bilateral or multilateral agreement binding upon those parties;(b) disputes concerning military activities, including military activities by government vessels and aircraft engaged in non-commercial service, and disputes concerning law enforcement activities in regard to the exercise of sovereign rights or jurisdiction excluded from the jurisdiction of a court or tribunal under article 297, paragraph 2 or 3;
A ruling could be issued sometime in the first half of 2016, and it is probable that other states may now join the Philippines in pursuing legal redress. How China will respond to this ruling has yet to be seen.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a new doctrine in world politics which insists that sovereignty is not merely a right of nation-states, it is also an obligation to protect innocents from war crimes, atrocities, and genocide. In such cases the world community has an obligation to override sovereignty and to protect these innocents. Unfortunately, R2P has not been implemented well. A team of researchers has analyzed the shortcomings of the doctrine and pose some changes necessary to make it more effective.
World Politics News 
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