Kader Asmal lecture: Moseneke calls for nations to uphold international law

CAPE TOWN - Retired Deputy Chief Justice, Dikgang Moseneke has stressed the importance of applying international law in finding lasting and meaningful peace in war-torn countries and regions.

Moseneke delivered the Kader Asmal Annual Memorial Lecture at the University of the Western Cape on Thursday.  

He said the late anti-apartheid activist, university professor and government minister, put international law at the centre of his work in trying to resolve conflict in the Middle East.  

Moseneke served as an ad hoc judge on the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January to hear South Africa's case for interim measures against Israel to protect Palestinian lives in Gaza.

He said Asmal was a firm believer in the importance of and adherence to international law on the path to liberation.   

Reflecting on tensions in the Middle East, Moseneke said there have been violations of international law on both sides of the Israel-Gaza war.   

"I'm not positing that this is a war of equals, yet it is true that unrestrained violence on either side is not a path to peace. The Middle East needs just and sustainable peace," said Moseneke. 

As Moseneke was delivering the memorial lecture, news broke of Ireland joining South Africa's genocide case against Israel in the ICJ.

READ: Ireland to join South Africa's ICJ 'genocide' case against Israel

While in exile in Ireland, Asmal taught law at Trinity College in Dublin for 27 years before returning to South Africa. 

"We can’t find our way through this without hope. But like Kader Asmal, I believe there is a place for legal legitimacy," he said.

Moseneke has bemoaned the inability of the International Court to enforce its orders and the power of the Security Council to dismiss the court's opinions as the “soft belly of the beast of the international law justice system.”