In the early morning hours of December 19, 1989, President George Herbert Walker Bush ordered the United States Army to organize a deliberate and well-accomplished attack that overwhelmed the Panamanian Defense Forces (FFPP) of dictator General Manuel Noriega. The goal was to reestablish the democratically elected government of Guillermo Endara and arrest Noriega on drug trafficking charges. In addition, there were reports that Noriega had acted as a double agent for Cuba’s intelligence agency and the Sandinistas.
"Operation Just Cause", as it was known at the time, was the largest and most complex combat operation since the Vietnam War. Nearly 26,000 combat troops were deployed. Two dozen targets were attacked throughout the country, using a wide spectrum of tactical operations including Military Operations on Urbanized Terrain (MOUT), Air-Assault, Airborne, and Special Forces. A dictator sustained by huge drug trafficking operations was removed and Noriega’s Panamanian Defense Forces (PDF) were promptly crushed, forcing the dictator to seek asylum with the Vatican nuncio in Panama City, where he finally surrendered to the US authorities on January 3rd, 1990.
However, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the European Parliament both 
formally protested the invasion, which they condemned as a flagrant violation of international law. Was that so? Did the US military operation violated Panama's sovereignty?
On Sept. 2012 world leaders and civil society representatives proclaimed their commitment to the rule of law as the foundation of equitable State relations and the basis upon which just and fair societies were built, as they adopted a lengthy declaration during the UN General Assembly’s first-ever high-level meeting on the rule of law at the national and international levels.
By terms of this “Declaration on the Rule of Law at the National and International Levels” [A/67/L.1], adopted at the start of the day-long meeting on Sept. 23, the GA reaffirmed that human rights, the rule of law and democracy were interlinked and mutually reinforcing, and that they belong to the universal and indivisible core values and principles of the United Nations. The rule of law applied equally to all States and international organizations, including the United Nations. All persons, institutions and entities were accountable to just, fair and equitable laws, and entitled to equal protection before the law, without discrimination. However, in that document delegates also rededicated themselves to supporting efforts to uphold "the sovereign equality of all States".
- Hits: 6384
Endowment for International Peace. Under the repressive regime of former President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, space for civic engagement was practically nonexistent. After the Arab Spring, thousands of civil society organizations (CSOs) formed to help transform Tunisia into the most promising emerging democracy in the Middle East by encouraging citizen participation and by holding the government accountable. However, Yerkes notes freedom of civic space is now at stake due to a restrictive law adopted by parliament on July 27, 2018.