Is humanitarian military intervention against international law, or are
there exceptions?
By: Matthew C. Waxman, Adjunct Senior Fellow for Law and Foreign Policy
As a matter of international law, humanitarian intervention—such as the use
of military force to protect foreign populations from mass atrocities or
gross human rights abuses—is permissible if authorized by the United
Nations Security Council (UNSC). Although many Western governments have
taken the position that such intervention may in some cases be morally
justified even if not authorized by the Security Council, most states and
international legal experts do not regard that as lawful.
The main source of international law on this issue is the United Nations
Charter, which prohibits the use of military force against or in another
state without its consent except when authorized by the UNSC or in
self-defense against armed attack. The UNSC has authorized humanitarian
interventions in cases such as Somalia and Haiti, but it is often difficult
to obtain the necessary votes in the UNSC and to overcome resistance by
permanent members Russia and China, which are generally opposed to these
actions.
In the 1999 Kosovo crisis, NATO launched military strikes to stop Serbian
ethnic cleansing, despite opposition from Russia, China, and many states of
the global South. Although many Western states regarded the action as
morally legitimate under the circumstances, many other states criticized it
as violating the principle of state sovereignty.
In recent years, states have reached general consensus that they have a
"Responsibility to Protect" populations from mass atrocities, and that when
a government fails in this responsibility towards its own people,
international action is appropriate. Many states, however, maintain the
position that only the UNSC can authorize armed intervention. I consider
these issues in a 2009 Council on Foreign Relations Special Report,
Intervention to Stop Genocide and Mass Atrocities: International Norms and
U.S. Policy. (
http://www.cfr.org/humanitarian-intervention/intervention-stop-genocide-mass-atrocities/p20379
)
Received on Thu Jun 27 2013 - 23:24:24 EDT