Monday, November 27, 2006

Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention(2): Asking the wrong question

It is the case that the effects of military intervention hurt the very object that is trying to defend: human life. When humanitarian intervention results in a war it causes violence, destruction, human suffering, and lost resources by the society as a whole, even in the situations of jus ad bellum[1]. With respect to the humanitarian aspect, when grave violations of human rights occur, the states have developed the routine[2] to condemn the violations of human rights. From an ethical standpoint the universality of human rights has as much weight as the issue of human suffering[3]. However, from a purely practical perspective, the purpose of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is to create the necessary conditions for human well-being. In this case it is not the rights themselves that need to be protected but they are merely a tool for protecting humanity and humans against suffering[4].

The current international system of states functions in such a way that resources are not only unequally distributed among states, but they are also scarce. Concomitantly, a whole range of variables play into the reasons why not all humans can enjoy the full range of human rights as outlined by the 1948 Declaration of Human Righits. However, the complexity of reality should not prevent the human society from striving to better itself. In order to ameliorate the situation, the world needs “to fix” what works “the worst”. Since it is humans and humanity that we are attempting to protect, it so happens that “the worst” means human suffering at its highest: people dying. Therefore, what international actors need to ask themselves is how to make the worst situations better and when is it worth to use force for achieving the goals of improving such a situation.

The essence of humanitarianism is asking “who needs help in this conflict?” and not “who is right in this conflict?”[5] In a similar fashion, asking the proper question the debate on where to intervene also becomes clearer. Being consistent with the purpose of the Human Rights, “who needs help?” is more appropriate than asking “who has more human rights abused”, or “who is right in a conflict”[6]. It is not uncommon that the answers for these questions are hardly the same. The migration away from this basic concept of “who needs help?” has heightened the importance of politically important situations, argued on humanitarian (and human rights grounds) at the cost of the situations in which the suffering is the greatest. Crude mortality rates should be one of the most relevant indicators of human suffering[7]. States should support sustainable amelioration of the cases of such extreme suffering situations. For that purpose, they should become the priority, and while it can be the case that they are correlated to human rights abuses, the cases of extreme human suffering should not be mistaken cases of extreme human rights abuses.

However human suffering has different levels of intensity and the world has not the obligation to act every time. Under the moral framework described so far, however, the priority should be to alleviate the absolute worst of the situations. If it is a mass famine, a civil war, or a disease, the world has the obligation to act in order to stop it. It is essential to uproot the current humanitarian idea that sees its definition bent to unnatural curvatures in order to fit political and economic interests, and re-root it back as a dedication to address the highest degree of human suffering at each point in time. It is often the case that such dedication is deadlocked in the current system of managing humanitarian intervention. While states recognize humanitarian crises when they occur, breaking the deadlock, but that the deadlock is broken when normative ethical values, are able to rally enough political support in order to have the vast majority of the states committed to solve it. Once this political will exists, crisis management possibilities grow exponentially. When both consensus and commitment are present, the political pressures, diplomacy and the carrots become much more effective. Similarly sticks become thicker and heavier. It is only when such politically wide will to solve the most urgent problem for the victims when a military action, labeled “humanitarian intervention” should exist. Such intervention is needed solely where its purpose remains to significantly improve the situation of the suffering. It is essential to note that neither full respect for human rights nor democracy or capitalism is essential for this purpose.



[1] Judith Gail Gardam, Proportionality and Force in International Law

[2] Jack Donnelly, Cultural Relativism and Universal Human Rights

[3] Ibid

[4] M Ignatieff, Human Rights as Politics and Idolatry

Catherine Dumait-Harper, The Responsibility to protect

[5] Fabrice Weissman. Military Humanitarianism: A Deadly Confusion

[6] Martin Woollacott: Humanitarians must avoid becoming tools of power

[7] Ibid

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