The United Nations, for the first time, reportedly described the famine in Gaza as "entirely man-made" (see Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) due to Israel's blockade of aid. According to press sources, Donald Trump, in recent days—in the midst of discussions aimed at defining how to ensure Kiev's security in the event of a peace agreement, perhaps with the involvement of NATO and European countries—resolved to backtrack on mediation between Russia and Ukraine to pressure their respective leaders into holding a bilateral meeting without his intervention. Then, on Ukraine's Independence Day, the President of the United States himself reiterated in a message sent for the occasion that "it's time to end the carnage in Ukraine."

Beyond Donald Trump's erratic declarations, two critical scenarios require, now more than ever, the unanimous intervention of the best international diplomacy to silence the weapons and politically resolve the pending territorial disputes. This is all the more true when we remember, with reference to the situation condemned by the United Nations in Gaza, that, strictly speaking, hunger, used as a weapon of war and prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, is considered a crime by the International Criminal Court, and is expressly condemned by the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which recognizes the right to food as a fundamental human right. And even more so when the military action carried out by Israel and aimed at the occupation of Gaza risks definitively compromising the central question of the territorial settlement between Israel and Palestine and therefore, in short, the long-desired solution of "Two Peoples, Two States", which, although complex to implement, remains even today, and indeed despite everything, simpler than a solution that envisages a binational state.

But could the same West that already met in Washington to discuss extending NATO guarantees for Ukraine also meet to discuss peace in the Middle East and the potential temporary presence of a United Nations-led interim system to ensure respect for the civil, political, religious, and cultural rights of all Palestinian citizens? It would be a powerful global signal of full affirmation of the right to self-determination of peoples, inviolable and inviolable in the context of any new world order. It would also be an undisputed signal of the West's unity and strength as a whole, beyond individual national power relations.

This would be nothing more and nothing less than fully implementing the very principle of the universality of international law, which, otherwise, would be distorted in its content in favor of what could be defined as the "variable geometries" of individuals. Every critical situation should be addressed with a single, internationally valid approach, without any ifs or buts, to ensure the greatest effectiveness of the international community's intervention in a global context that continues to be marked and compromised by serious conflicts. Diplomacy must reclaim its leading role to uphold the universality of international law and respect for human rights.

Giuseppina Di Salvatore – Lawyer, Nuoro

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