DRAFT
SDG Target 16.3.1 & TAP #28
28 Promote and Ensure There Is an Enforced Rule of Law at all Levels of Governments Including International Levels
(Updated June 21, 2018)
(This is a work in progress. Please provide comments/suggestions/additional actions to PeopleNow.org by email: RefineThePlan@PeopleNow.org or Fax 703-521-0849)
Supposedly there is a rule of law in our country and some of the world but in general it’s incomplete and not being enforced. This plan outlines actions required to ensure an enforced rule of law at all levels of government including international levels
TABLE OF CONTENTS
This plan outlines Individual Actions to:
28.3.1 The objectives of this plan include:
28.3.2 Implement SDG Target 16.3.1 Ensure an enforced rule of law at all levels of government including international levels
28.4.1
As explained under the Rule of Law and Declaration of Delhi in Wikipedia:
The International Congress of Jurists, consisting of 185 judges, practicing lawyers and teachers of law from 53 countries, assembled in New Delhi in January 1959 under the aegis of the International Commission of Jurists, discussed freely and frankly the Rule of Law and the administration of justice throughout the world, reached conclusions regarding the legislative, the executive, the criminal process, the judiciary and the legal profession and further developed the principles and procedures underlying the Rule of Law as well as defining and clarifying the concept itself.
The conclusions of this Congress, promulgated to the world in what was called The Declaration of Delhi including: This commission gave rise to three important elements in the concept of the Rule of Law.
• First, that the individual is possessed of certain rights and freedoms and that he is entitled to protection of these rights and freedoms by the State;
• Second, that there is an absolute need for an independent judiciary and bar as well as for effective machinery for the protection of fundamental rights and freedoms; and
• Third, that the establishment of social, economic, educational and cultural conditions would permit men to live in dignity and to fulfill their legitimate aspirations.
For the first item: Under our Constitution and the International Covenants on Human Rights, individuals are possessed of detailed extensive rights and freedoms and entitled to protection of these rights and freedoms by the State. However, our public servants are not protecting these rights and freedoms and in many cases are violating them as evidenced by: warrant less arrests and searches, spying on citizens, state sponsored torture,
The second; The ineffectiveness of our legal machinery and our judiciary being absolutely dependent on the largesse of corporation executives and others in the 1% as evidenced by: Citizens United and other court rulings, no indictments of financial criminals, very little enforcement of anti-trust laws, solitary confinement, private for profit prisons, punitive punishment, little rehabilitation and restorative justice for the poor and disadvantaged, confusing complicated and often unconstitutional statues, etc.
The third; Despite the fact that the Constitution requires that our public servants promote the general welfare, people want to work and productivity and technology make prosperity for all possible, our public servants have prevented and blocked the establishment of the cultural conditions that would permit men to live in dignity as evidenced by: extensive unemployment, poverty, homelessness, hunger, regressive tax codes, etc.
The U.S. has a rule of law, “we are a nation of men not laws,” no one and no government is above the law.
However, our public servants are not supporting or enforcing our rule of law and some think that they are above the law.
What must be done to enforce the rule-of-law includes particular enforcing the misprision of felony offense under United States federal law codified in 1909 as 18 U.S.C. § 4:
Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
The offences of misfeasance-in-public office and malfeasance-in-public office could also be of use in enforcing the rule-of-law.