"Succeeding Generations" in the United Nations charter and...

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Below is the unedited, uncorrected final draft of a target article that has been accepted for publication. Czech Yearbook of Public & Private Law, Praha, 2012, Vol. 3, pp.157-171 "SUCCEEDING GENERATIONS" IN THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER AND THEIR ROLE FOR THE UNITED NATIONS CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDIES Sławomir Redo

Abstract: Through the results of various empirical findings, this criminological essay aims to prove how important it is to look at the role of the United Nations Charter for criminal justice education to prevent violent conflicts. In the interest of strengthening peace and security in the world the essay promotes the United Nations Criminal Justice Studies. Key words: attachment, conflict, crime prevention, education, justice, peace, rule of law, security, United Nations Charter, war.

For Miroslav, Pavel and Zdenĕk – my younger and older Czech friends 1. Introduction The Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations declares: “We the Peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind”…, and “to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security.”1 Virginia Gildersleeve, a US professor of literature and the most retiring member of the US delegation at the San Francisco Conference that drafted the UN Charter, felt that its Originally written by Jan Smuts, the South African veteran Field Marshal as: "The High Contracting Parties, determined to prevent a recurrence of the fratricidal strife which twice in our generation has brought untold sorrow and loss upon mankind. . ." which would have been similar to the opening lines of the Covenant of the League of Nations. The text was criticized by the US delegate as “clumsy”, “lacking any soul” and “a literary and “intellectual abortion” (Schlesinger, S.E. , Act of Creation: The Founding of the United Nations: A Story of Superpowers, Secret Agents, Wartime Allies and Enemies, and Their Quest for a Peaceful World, Westview, Perseus Books Group, Cambridge, MA, 2004, p. 236). Regarding the letter and spirit of the United Nations language and the difficulties in its intercultural comprehension, see: S. Redo, Blue Criminology. The Power of United Nations Ideas to Counter Crime Globally. A Monographic Study, The European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control, affiliated with the United Nations, Helsinki, 2012, pp. 44 & 209-211. 1

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