Le droit d’ingérence humanitaire est légitime en contextes de conflits armées ? -étude en anglais

Sujet : Le droit d’ingérence humanitaire est légitime en contextes de conflits armés.

1-Introduction

1.1 The Right to Humanitarian Intervention is a widely debated topic in international law. Simon Chesterman describes that it “[…] brings into question not merely the substance, but the moral foundations of international law” (Chesterman, 2002, pg.219). It has been invoked many times in the past, some have failed, such NATO’s ‘humanitarian war’ in Kosovo, but others have worked brilliantly, such as the US entering Iraq in 1991.

1.2 However, do outside parties or states have a legitimate right to enter during armed conflict, sometimes without the country’s consent, to implement humanitarian intervention?

1.3 This work consists of two parts:

-The moral obligation to aid people in times of armed conflict.

-The difficulty involved in implementing this humanitarian intervention.

2. The legitimisation of humanitarian intervention during armed conflict arises from the moral obligation to provide aid.

2.1 Human dignity

“Tout être humain, quelle qu’il soit, possède une dignité propre, inaliénable, au sens non équivoque que Kant a donné à ce terme: ‘ce qui est au-dessus de tout prix et n’admet nul équivalent, n’ayant pas une valeur absolue.’ […] La dignité inaliénable de tout être humain s’est pourtant imposé très vite à la conscience” (De Koninck, 1995, pg.2-7). Simply put, De Koninck’s explanation of human dignity explains why humanitarian intervention is crucial in the international community. Every man, no matter where he is from, deserves the right to be treated fairly and respectfully and humanitarian intervention is there to aid men and women who have not been treated with this human dignity.

2.2 Humanitarian interventions do not always imply armed interventions.

“L’aide humanitaire, accompagné d’un serment de discrétion, devient alors un sacerdoce, que tous les bénévoles ne sont pas susceptibles d’assumer. Dès lors, allait naître l’aventure humanitaire, dans laquelle se lançaient Médecins sans Frontières, Médecins du Monde, Aide Médicale Internationale […], présent bientôt les uns les autres, parfois ensembles, dans tous les points chauds, qu’il s’agisse de conflits armés ou de catastrophes naturelles” (Domestici-Met, 1989, pg.127). As stated, there is an unjust view on humanitarian interventionism. Many people believe that this only entitles military force, but this is untrue, as many NGO’s participating in these interventions, such as Doctors Without Borders, are only present to provide aid and relief to the affected population.

2.3 Interventions to protect human rights

“Humanitarian intervention has also been defined as the proportionate transboundary help, including forcible help, provided by governments to individuals in another state who are being denied basic human rights and who themselves would be rationally willing to revolt against their oppressive government” (Benjamin, 1992-1993, p.121).

Humanitarian intervention, as a basis, is to protect human rights. Thus, it is an essential part of international relations, as without humanitarian intervention, there is no ‘muscle’ behind human rights and to end the violations committed.

2.4 The diminishment of sovereign power

“As the notion of universal human rights has grown in standing in the international community, there has been an increasing shift to an alternative conception that views sovereignty as responsibility, the responsibility to uphold citizens' human rights” (Pattinson, 2010, p.2-3).

This quotation clearly demonstrates the fact that sovereign power in international politics is diminishing. Thus, instead of blindly hiding behind the power of sovereignty, they are now responsible for the human rights of their people. If they do not uphold these human rights, than it is the responsibility of other states to aid the population that has been oppressed or have had their rights revoked.

3. The legal limits and the difficulties of implementing humanitarian intervention

3.1 The difficulty of interventionism itself.

“There are some other obvious objections to the very essence of liberal humanitarianism. It is self-evident that any attempt to undertake the role of world policeman, to whatever ends, places such demands on the material resources and morale of the actor that almost no government could seriously consider the task” (Howard, 2006, p.24).

Essentially, Howard is explaining the difficulty

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