Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention(3): Guidelines for Intervention

Now that we have established when and where humanitarian intervention is necessary, it is important to outline the key guidelines such an intervention should follow, in order to remain consistent with its goals of alleviating greatest suffering. Post September 11 the term “humanitarian intervention” was exploited for rallying local and international support for military interventions. Since such intervention was deemed humanitarian in nature, without having a broad agreement among states that this was the case, the idea of military action for the protection of human rights has been seriously compromised. If it is to retain any legitimacy, humanitarian intervention needs to distance itself from what it is now. To facilitate this process, the UN needs to distance itself from taking the lead in humanitarian intervention and as the intervention progresses the military and civil aspects need to be kept separate, for the sake of the population on behalf the intervention is conducted. First, UN should refrain from conducting such operations itself and leave states, local organizations or groups of states handle the military intervention. While the states willingness not to abuse the right to intervene may be doubtful under the current conditions, under the normative framework presented above, states will not intervene in the absence of a broad international consensus approving their action. The key in regaining legitimacy for military action as a mean to reduce suffering is to depoliticize the humanitarian aspect by distancing it from the military one. The UN and the humanitarian NGO should not be compromised from their work to relief suffering even when a war takes place. It is intuitive that if the UN is regarded as one of the partakers in the war (as it is the case with the peacemaking missions) they will cease to be regarded as the impartial mediator. Both the UN and the NGOs need to maintain their equidistance and dedication to humanitarianism more than anything else.