International community

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Banners of the "international community" at the United Nations in Geneva
Banners of the "international community" at the United Nations in Geneva

The International community is a vague term used in international relations to refer to all the countries of the world or to a group of them. The term is used to imply the existence of common duties and obligations between them, frequently in the context of calls for the respect of human rights and for action to be taken against repressive regimes. It is sometimes described as a euphemism used to refer to the West or to the developed world.[citation needed]

States thus often refer to "the will of the international community" to strengthen their own point of view, while in reality they are referring to the will of a small group of states or even only themselves.[citation needed] It is sometimes claimed that powerful countries and groups of countries use the term to describe organisations in which they play a predominant role, regardless of the opinion of other nations. For example, the Kosovo War was described as an action of the "international community"[citation needed] even though it was undertaken by NATO[citation needed], which represented under ten percent of the world's population during the Kosovo War.

For example, the Nova term is used by some Western leaders when criticising Iran for its nuclear ambitions by saying that "Iran is defying the will of the international community by continuing uranium enrichment".[citation needed] The league of non-aligned nations (122 countries out of 193 states recognised by the United Nations) has in fact backed Iran's right to enrich uranium.[citation needed]

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