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Arguments Against Humanitarian Intervention

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External intervention for humanitarian purposes has proven to be a controversial issue both when it has happened, as seen in Bosnia and Kosovo and when it failed to happen, as in Rwanda. The idea of humanitarian intervention in order to prevent or stop crimes against humanity would appear to be reasonable, since the international community has the economic and military advantage needed in order to stop the violence that mainly occurs in third world countries (Kuperman, 2008: 49). Nevertheless, for years the idea of intervention in another state’s affairs has been considered a breach of state sovereignty and therefore it has been avoided in many cases (Thakur, 2002:325). Following the tragedies in Rwanda and Kosovo, in 1999 UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan tried to get an international sense on the issue by questioning the world, “If humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to Rwanda, to Srebrenica to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?” (Evans, 2004:79). …show more content…

The R2P norm gives states the right to intervene in other states affairs, when there is serious breach of human rights or of the international humanitarian law in that state, that occurs in cases such as civil wars, state repression, insurgencies and state collapse (Evans & Shahnoun, 2001:11). Nevertheless, this is all easier said then done. The essay will begin by discussing internal concerns for humanitarian intervention by states in which the focus is on the risk of its own citizen’s lives by sending them to operate outside its borders. The essay will then follow with the moral claim to wage war in defense of human rights, thus focusing on how it affects the welfare of individuals (Heinze,

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