Russia is a permanent member of the UN, and the Russian Constitution must be consistent with the spirit of the UN Charter and its two human rights conventions. In this case, however, the Russian Constitutional Court backs the executive branch – not surprising given the fact that the court’s judges are all appointed by the Russian President. Constitutional Court judges should be of many different nationalities and nominated by international human rights organizations. For details, see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.

The Philippines’ macho President will undoubtedly tone down his rhetoric during his four-day visit to China in a move that could shift Manila closer to Beijing and bring greater economic cooperation between the two sides. Duterte won the top office on the strength of his efforts to suppress drug trafficking, often at the expense of human rights, but Beijing is unlikely to bring up the question of rights in any talks with the Philippine leader. For the people of the Philippines, better relations with China may bring economic benefits, but other problems can only be resolved by carrying out reform of the constitution to limit the powers of government officials and put restrictions on their terms in office. For more details please see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.

The greater the powers of government, the weaker the rights of the people; this is the eternal antagonistic relationship. When the people are indifferent to the Constitution and its provisions, dictators are free to steal the country's resources. Constitutional education maximizes the power of the ballot box. The educated electorate must exercise their sovereignty to take action and carry out constitutional reform. The result will be a constitutional framework in which "people govern the government." For details, see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.

Judges are the last line of defense for fairness and justice, and if the judicial system becomes an accomplice to corruption, all reforms will be for naught. Ukrainian judicial reform must include election of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court and the Procurator General so they will be directly responsible to the Ukrainian people. They shall serve terms of 5 years and be banned from running again for 6 years after stepping down. For details, see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.

The rights to life, work, health care, and education are related to the allocation of resources, and the superstructure governing resource allocation is the distribution of power. The Russian people's political indifference allows dictators to control the nation and its resources. Thus the people must act as sovereigns and amend the Constitution so that they become the managers of the government. For details, see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development

Prohibiting relatives of officials from entering the securities business is only a stop-gap measure. The only real solution is removing structural factors that make corruption possible, and introducing decentralization and checks and balances; until that happens, corruption will always exist. The ultimate answer is constitutional reform to implement direct election of the heads of the legislative, executive, judicial and procuratorial branches and free elections for all candidates to allow light to shine into the black boxes of government. For details, see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.

The Iranian Ambassador to Russia said last month that Tehran is looking for ways to broaden the scope of defense cooperation with Moscow, even in areas that require coordination with the UN Security Council. Iranians would like to purchase a wide range of military-purpose products from Russia, some of which are covered by UNSC sanctions. Moscow has said it is ready to work with Iran in the area of military and technical cooperation. Democratic powers worldwide must support Taiwan in its bid to carry out constitutional reform. When Taiwan enjoys greater freedom under a truly democratic government it will lead the people of China to call for democratization and in turn, will put pressure on Russia to follow suit. For more details please see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.

Syria is at the center of much of the unrest in the Middle East, and considerable changes in the nation’s government must be considered in order to help bring about peace in the area. Setting up a semi-presidential system with a Parliament modeled after Switzerland’s is the first step toward democratization and the rule of law. This must be followed by adoption of a legal system in which international law takes precedent over domestic law. For details, see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.

China’s judicial system is often criticized for its unfair application of the rules in decisions handed down by judges. The branch’s investigative arms are also condemned for their habit of carrying out investigations at different speeds according to the political ‘color’ and status of persons involved. All of these problems can be addressed by forcing the heads of governmental branches to face the people through elections and limiting the terms of office to minimize the opportunities for corruption. The people must have the power to monitor government officials and vote poor performers out of office. See the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development for more.

Stories of corruption and undue political influence are flooding news headlines everywhere from the western reaches of Europe to the most Eastern areas of Asia. The reason for these outbreaks of corruption is the concentration of too much power in the hands of a few key officials and a lack to restraints on the powers that they wield. Constitutional reform is urgently needed to return power to the people. For more details, please see the Charter for Permanent Peace and Development.