Hawzah News Agency- Speaking at the fourth international webinar titled “Islamic Iran; The Islamic Dignity Front in Confrontation with the Zionist Regime,” organized by the World Forum of the Resistance, Dr. Helia Dotaqi, professor of international law at Carleton University in Canada, called for the organized and strategic engagement of the axis of resistance in the arena of international law.
“The confrontation between the Islamic Dignity Front and the Zionist regime is not merely a military clash,” Dotaqi said. “It is a deep and structural battle over meaning, legitimacy, law, and the dominant legal narrative that governs the international order.”
Referring to the formation of the post–World War II international legal system, Dotaqi said the system was established under the pretext of preventing atrocities such as the Holocaust and safeguarding human dignity. However, he stressed that Palestine became the most glaring exception to this order from its inception.
“An international system that claims universality and neutrality has, in practice, operated within power relations,” she said. “Rather than preventing injustice, it has repeatedly reproduced structures of domination, with Palestine standing as the clearest example of this failure.”
The international law professor said the Al-Aqsa Storm operation exposed what she described as the West’s false claim to legal and moral legitimacy. She noted that recent developments demonstrate that the problem is not the absence of legal norms, but the selective enforcement of law.
“From a legal standpoint, genocide in Gaza has been recognized,” Dotaqi said. “The International Court of Justice has acknowledged the plausibility of genocide, issued provisional measures, and ordered a halt to military operations in Rafah. The International Criminal Court has also issued arrest warrants for senior officials of the Zionist regime. The real issue is not law itself, but its implementation and the monopoly over legal narratives exercised by power.”
Dotaqi stressed that the axis of resistance should not dismiss international law as merely an instrument of its adversaries or a completely failed framework. “Even within an unjust global order, law remains one of the key arenas in which legitimacy is produced,” she said. “Military powers are compelled to justify their violence in legal terms, and this contradiction creates a strategic opening for conscious and active intervention by the resistance.”
Highlighting the peremptory norm prohibiting genocide, Dotaqi said the prevention, deterrence, and punishment of genocide constitute binding obligations under international law for all states, without exception.
“This obligation is not symbolic,” she emphasized. “Resistance actions in Palestine, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iran can be legally articulated as efforts to fulfill international obligations aimed at preventing genocide and protecting oppressed populations.”
In her concluding remarks, Dotaqi said the future of international law will not be decided in institutions such as the UN Security Council or conference halls in Geneva, but on the ground.
“The Islamic Dignity Front is not merely resisting aggression,” she said. “It is actively redefining the concepts of law, legitimacy, and global order. It is precisely in this struggle that the outcome of the battle will be determined—ultimately in favor of oppressed and marginalized nations.”
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