International intervention for justice in Asia uneven: Hamid Ansar

New Delhi, Nov 23 (UNI) Decrying ''apartheid'' in the application of trans-national justice, Vice-President Hamid Ansari today called for making it universal rather than location-specific and warned that selective justice was a recipe for trouble.

In his inaugural address at the 'Third International Congress of the Asian Political and International Studies Association' here, Mr Ansari, without identifying any country, lamented the ''apartheid'' in the application of justice and said that in Asia, there was justifiable frustration about selective application of the existing modes of transnational justice.

''The provisions for robust international intervention in conflict situations in Asia are unevenly applied. In today's age of globalisation, domestic conceptions of justice as applied in democracies of the West, must find application in the larger international arena. There can be no apartheid in the application of justice,'' he said.

''It is also in the category of universal values, rather than location-specific...Whichever way we look at it, selective good and selective justice is a recipe for trouble,'' he said.

Asserting that social justice is a fundamental right of every human being, the Vice-President said conceptual framework for justice had practical implications and could only be viable if it is inclusive--at the societal, national and international levels.

Pointing out the importance 'justice' was given even in ancient times, the Vice-President said the modern concept of justice received international recognition in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

''The expression 'social and economic justice' involved the concept of 'distributive justice' which connotes the removal of economic inequalities and rectifying the injustice resulting from dealings and transactions between unequals in society.'' He said the association of expressions 'freedom', 'equality' and 'justice' with the quest for a new international system indicated both lacunae and a desire to fill it in terms of the international system.

UNI