Abstract
While reviewing some of the human rights and humanitarian issues which are posing challenges to the sovereignty discourse, I have demonstrated how the rights of individuals and groups are gaining in stature with respect to state sovereignty. That is, empirical investigations of international law and state practice as well as normative and theoretical interrogations of the social purpose of the state have yielded a reconstruction of the loci of rights and authority which is much more ambiguous than the familiar constructions of state sovereignty. The state cannot claim to be the sole arbiter of proper conduct within a particular territorial expanse. Rather, it is subject to a wide array of restrictions on its conduct, particularly with regard to the treatment of individuals and groups.
At the current stage of inter-state relations,
the issue, in my view, is not so much of
humanitarian intervention but of humanitarian
access. Sadako Ogata1
We were so riveted to the problem of
sovereignty … but a country’s sovereignty
doesn’t give it the right to do what was
happening in the Sudan. US Official2
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Notes
Following is a partial review of the recent literature: Howard Adelman, ‘Humanitarian Intervention: The Case of the Kurds’, International Journal of Refugee Law 4 (1 1992): pp. 4–38
Payam Akhavan, ‘Lessons from Iraqi Kurdistan: Self-Determination and Humanitarian Intervention Against Genocide’, Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights 11 (1 1993): pp. 4–62
Charles A. Allen, ‘Civilian Starvation and Relief During Armed Conflict: The Modern Humanitarian Law’, Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 19 (Spring 1989): pp. 1–85
Michael J. Bazyler, ‘Reexamining the Doctrine of Humanitarian Intervention in Light of the Atrocities in Kampuchea and Ethiopia’, Stanford Journal of International Law 23 (Summer 1987): pp. 547–619
Mario Bettati, ‘The Right of Humanitarian Intervention or the Right of Free Access to Victims?’ The Review 49 (1992): pp. 1–11
Antonio Donini, ‘Beyond Neutrality: On the Compatability of Military Intervention and Humanitarian Assistance’, The Fletcher Forum (Summer/Fall 1995): pp. 31–45
Jack Donnelly, ‘Human Rights Humanitarian Intervention and American Foreign Policy’, Journal of International Affairs 37 (Winter 1984): pp. 311–28
H. Scott Fairley, ‘State Actors, Humanitarian Intervention and International Law’, Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 10 (Winter 1980): pp. 29–63
Elizabeth G. Ferris, ed., The Challenge to Intervene: A New Role for the United Nations? (Uppsala: Life & Peace Institute, 1992)
Ian Forbes and Mark Hoffman, eds, Political Theory, International Relations, and the Ethics of Intervention, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993)
Thomas R. Gillespie, ‘Unwanted Responsibility: Humanitarian Intervention to Advance Human Rights’, Peace & Change 18 (July 1993): pp. 219–46
Sohail H. Hashmi, ‘Is There an Islamic Ethic of Humanitarian Intervention?’ Ethics & International Affairs, 7 (1993): pp. 55–73
J. Bryan Hehir, ‘Intervention: From Theories to Cases’, Ethics & International Affairs 9 (1995): pp. 1–13
Luis Kutner, ‘World Habeas Corpus and Humanitarian Intervention’, Valparaiso University Law Review 19 (Spring 1985): pp. 593–631
Pierre Laberge, ‘Humanitarian Intervention: Three Ethical Positions’, Ethics & International Affairs 9 (1995): pp. 15–35
Guenter Lewy, ‘The Case for Humanitarian Intervention’, Orbis 37 (Fall 1993): pp. 621–32
Richard B. Lillich, ed., Humanitarian Intervention and the United Nations, (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1973)
Gene M. Lyons and Michael Mastanduno, eds, Beyond Westphalia? State Sovereignty and International Intervention, (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995)
Samuel M. Makinda, Seeking Peace from Chaos: Humanitarian Intervention in Somalia, International Peace Academy,Occasional Paper Series, (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1993)
Michael Mandelbaum ‘The Reluctance to Intervene’, Foreign Policy 95 (Summer 1994): pp. 3–18
Andrew S. Natsios, ‘Food Through Force: Humanitarian Intervention and U.S. Policy’, The Washington Quarterly 17 (Winter 1994): pp. 129–44
Kelly-Kate Pease and David P. Forsythe, ‘Humanitarian Intervention and International Law’, Austrian Journal of Public and International Law 45 (1993): pp. 1–20
Thomas W. Pogge, ‘An Institutional Approach to Humanitarian Intervention’, Public Affairs Quarterly 6 (January 1992): pp. 89–103
Oliver Ramsbotham and Tom Woodhouse, Humanitarian Intervention in Contemporary Conflict: A Reconceptualization, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996)
Laura W. Reed and Carl Kaysen, eds, Emerging Norms of Justified Intervention: A Collection of Essays from a Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, (Cambridge, MA: Committee on International Security Studies, 1993)
Adam Roberts, ‘Humanitarian War: Military Intervention and Human Rights’, International Affairs 69 (July 1993): pp. 429–49
Nigel Rodley, ed., To Loose the Bands of Wickedness: International Intervention in Defense of Human Rights, (London: Brassey’s Defense Publishers, 1992)
David. J. Scheffer, ‘Toward a Modern Doctrine of Humanitarian Intervention’, University of Toledo Law Review 23 (2 1992): pp. 253–92
M. Sornarajah, ‘Internal Colonialism and Humanitarian Intervention’, Georgia Journal of International and Comparative Law 11 (Winter 1981): pp. 45–77
Fernando R. Teson, Humanitarian Intervention: An Inquiry into Law and Morality, (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Transnational Publishers, Inc., 1988)
Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, (New York: Basic Books, 1977)
Thomas G. Weiss and Jarat Chopra, ‘Sovereignty Is No Longer Sacrosanct: Codifying Humanitarian Intervention’, Ethics & International Affairs 6 (1992): pp. 95–117
Nicholas J. Wheeler, ‘Pluralist or Solidarist Conceptions on International Society: Bull and Vincent on Humanitarian Intervention’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies 21 (3 1992): pp. 463–87.
Richard Falk, ‘The Legitimacy of Legislative Intervention by the United Nations’, in Roland J. Stanger, ed., Essays on Intervention (Ohio State University Press, 1964): p. 36.
Stanley Hoffman, ‘The Problem of Intervention’, in Hedley Bull, ed., Intervention in World Politics, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1984): p. 24.
Aristide Zolberg, Astri Suhrke and Sergio Aguayo, Escape From Violence, (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989): p. 144.
R.J. Vincent, Nonintervention and International Order, (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974): p. 345.
However, some have argued that domestic political factors within the United States played a significant role in the timing, as well as the actual fact, of the intervention. Certainly, there was a long period of time before the intervention during which the US could have acted and did not. One might also point to the ‘CNN Effect’. That is, to many it appears that the United States and the rest of the world may only respond to humanitarian emergencies when the world media focus on a particular situation, showing graphic pictures on the evening news, thus leading to domestic pressure to ‘do something’. If this is so, then humanitarian responses will continue to be highly selective. However, it may also point to a situation where domestic pressure is felt on the international scene. Further, it may also force a partial reconceptualization of the way ‘state’ action actually occurs. That is, rather than just focusing analysis on how the apex of power in a particular country — presidents, prime ministers, etc. — reacts to a given humanitarian disaster, it may also be important to include the role of the media and publics as crucial determinants of foreign policy. To the extent that President Bush felt pressure to intervene in a situation where there were no ‘vital strategic interests’, this should be seen at least partly as an exercise in popular sovereignty, and the subsequent action as an expression of the will of the country as a whole. On the role of the media in humanitarian crises see Robert I. Rotberg and Thomas G. Weiss, eds, From Massacres to Genocide: The Media, Public Policy, and Humanitarian Crises, (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1996).
For an in-depth discussion of the situation in the former Yugoslavia see James B. Steinberg, ‘Yugoslavia’, in Lori Eisler Damrosch, ed., Enforcing Restraint: Collective Intervention in Internal Conflicts, (New York: Council on Foreign Relations, 1993): pp. 27–76.
In fact, senior officials questioned the credibility of the informant. Howard Adelman and Astri Suhrke, ‘Early Warning and Conflict Management: Genocide in Rwanda’, Study 2 of the Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to Rwanda, International Response to Conflict and Genocide: Lessons from the Rwanda Experience, in the Journal of Humanitarian Assistance [Online], (March 1996): footnote 64, Available: http://131.111.106.147/policy/pb021.htm.
Bruce D. Jones, ‘“Intervention without Borders”: Humanitarian Intervention in Rwanda, 1990–94’, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 24 (2 1995): pp. 226–33.
Ibid., pp. 231–2; Gérard Prunier, ‘“Opération Turquoise”: A Humanitarian Escape from a Political Dead End’, workshop on Genocide in Rwanda: International Responsibilities and Responses, Washington, DC, 8–9 December 1995.
Thomas G. Weiss, David P. Forsythe and Roger A. Coate, The United Nations and Changing World Politics, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994): pp. 33–9.
Gwynne Dyer, ‘Beyond Haiti; Armies in the Western Hemisphere Take Note: Coups Will Not Be Tolerated’, The Gazette (Montreal) [Online], (20 September 1994): B3, Available: Nexis.
Arthur C. Helton, ‘The Legality of Providing Humanitarian Assistance Without the Consent of the Sovereign’, International Journal of Refugee Law, 4 (3 1992): p. 375.
Denise Plattner, ‘Assistance to the Civilian Population: The Development and Present State of International Humanitarian Law’, International Review of the Red Cross, (May-June 1992): p. 251
Maurice Torrelli, ‘From Humanitarian Assistance to “Intervention on Humanitarian Grounds”?’ International Review of the Red Cross, (May-June 1992): p. 231.
Michael Bothe, ‘Relief Actions: The Position of the Recipient State’, in Fritz Kalshoven, ed., Assisting the Victims of Armed Conflicts and Other Disasters, (Dordrecht: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1989): p. 96.
See Kurt Mills, ‘Humanitarian Intervention: Responding to the Situation in Ethiopia’, Occasional Paper 3:OP:3, Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, Fall 1992, especially pp. 29–43. For an in-depth look at the role of humanitarian organizations in Ethiopia, see William DeMars, Helping People in a People’s War: Humanitarian Organizations and the Ethiopian Conflict, 1980–1988, Dissertation, Department of Government and International Studies, University of Notre Dame, 1993.
See Ibid. See also Bernard Kouchner and Mario Bettati, Le Devoir d’ingérence: peut-on les laisser mourir? (Paris: Denoël, 1987).
Quoted in Larry Minear, Humanitarianism Under Siege: A Critical Review of Operation Lifeline Sudan, (Trenton, NJ: Red Sea Press, 1991): p. 99.
Michael Walzer, ‘The Moral Standing of States: A Response to Four Critics’, Philosophy & Public Affairs, 9 (Spring 1980): p. 220.
Juha Räikkä, ‘On National Self-Determination: Some Problems of Walzer’s Definition of Nation’, in William Twining, ed., Issues of Self-Determination, (Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1991): p. 22.
Of course, this ignores the question of ‘better’ according to whom. Presumably, it would be better according to the people who were engaging in the struggle for self-determination and not according to those who were intervening on their behalf. The intervening entity must ‘support the development of political forms perceived as just by… [the] indigenous populations’. Alan H. Goldman, ‘Foreign Intervention’, in Steven Luper-Foy, ed., Problems of International Justice, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988): p. 202.
These criteria are similar, but not identical, to criteria put forward by a number of other observers. See, for example, Bazyler, pp. 598–607; Barabara Harff, Genocide and Human Rights: International Legal and Political Issues, Vol. 20, No. 3, Monograph Series in World Affairs, (Denver: University of Denver, 1984): pp. 24–5; Sornarajah, especially pp. 73–7 (focuses on instances of self-determination and secession); Ramsbotham and Woodhouse, pp. 225–31
David J. Scheffer, ‘Challenges Confronting Collective Security: Humanitarian Intervention’, in Post-Gulf War Challenges to the UN Collective Security System: Three Views on the Issue of Humanitarian Intervention, (Washington, DC: United States Institute of Peace, 1992): pp. 1–14.
I have not addressed the question of monitoring or deciding when genocide or other gross violations of human rights are occurring. Recognizing, publicizing, and getting relevant decision-makers to recognize and act upon such abuses can be a complicated and sometimes politically-laden process. On defining and recognizing genocide see Helen Fein, ed., Genocide Watch, (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992). See also Harff, pp. 14–17 for some of the shortcomings of the definition of genocide in the Genocide Convention.
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Mills, K. (1998). Humanitarian Access and Intervention. In: Human Rights in the Emerging Global Order. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230373556_5
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