Forceful Intervention for Protection of Human Rights in Africa
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 January 2020
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 January 2020
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0197
- LAST REVIEWED: 15 January 2020
- LAST MODIFIED: 15 January 2020
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199796953-0197
Introduction
Article 2(4) of the Charter of the United Nations (UN) obliges States to refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the UN. The formulation of Article 2(4) of the UN Charter gives room to argue that military intervention for purposes of protecting human rights is not covered in the prohibition if it does not threaten the territorial integrity or political independence of a State, especially since promotion of human rights is one of the purposes of the UN under Article 1(3) of the Charter. However, the majority of commentators argue that the Charter prohibits any unilateral use of force and the travaux préparatoires leave no doubt that the terms ‘territorial integrity’ and ‘political independence’ were included not to qualify an absolute prohibition of the use of force but rather as intensifiers to emphasize the protection of States from acts of aggression. The purpose of inserting the phrase ‘or in any other manner inconsistent with’ in Article 2(4) was not to open the door to implicit exceptions from the rule but to make the prohibition watertight. Thus, Article 2(4) constitutes general prohibition of use of force in international law, subject only to the two exceptions outlined in the Charter: self-defense under Article 51 and chapter 7 enforcement action by the Security Council. Thus, except in self-defense, the use of force is the preserve of the Security Council. On this basis, any use of force to protect human rights in another State is subject to authorization of the Security Council.
General Overviews
In support of the doctrine of humanitarian intervention, Reisman 1995 maintains that “in modern international law, what counts is the sovereignty of people and not a metaphysical abstraction called the state” (p. 83). Ruys, et al. 2018 presents a wide range of cases involving different forms of humanitarian intervention, including by invitation, prodemocracy intervention, and intervention to protect humanitarian intervention. Neuhold 2007 (cited under Why Use Military Force for Protection of Human Rights?) specifically tackles the issue of use of force for protection of human rights—a similar topic which Roberts 1993 termed humanitarian war. Tesón 1997 provides a philosophical explanation and justification of the prohibition of use of force and whether force can be used for protection of human rights purposes. The International Council on Human Rights Policy 2002 provided a useful guide to overcoming the challenges posed by military interventions in human rights crises. Alston and MacDonald 2008 (cited under Why Use Military Force for Protection of Human Rights?) clearly explains circumstances when military forces can be deployed for human rights protection purposes. The period following the controversial military intervention by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1999 saw voluminous publications on the question of humanitarian intervention including the Independent International Commission on Kosovo (Kosovo Report) 1999, the Danish Institute of International Affairs 1999 report, the 2001 seminal publication by International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Wheeler and Bellamy 2001, Orford 2003, and Gray 2003 (cited under The Prohibition of Use of Force and Nonintervention in International Law), Wesley 2005, Holzgrefe and Keohane 2003 (cited under Addressing the Question of Humanitarian Intervention), Jütersonke and Krause 2006 (cited under The Prohibition of Use of Force and Nonintervention in International Law), and Roberts 2008 (cited under Why Use Military Force for Protection of Human Rights?). The convoluted question of humanitarian intervention in Africa was answered in Africa by the adoption of Article 4(h) in the AU Constitutive Act. The humanitarian intervention debate was finally settled globally in paragraphs 172 and 173 of the 2005 UN World Summit Outcome. This watershed was marked by scholarly works like Evans 2008 (cited under The Responsibility to Protect) elucidating the notation of responsibility to protection, as well as Kioko 2003 (cited under Article 4(h)-Intervention) and Kuwali 2011 (cited under Right of Intervention of the African Union) digging into the breadth and depth of Article 4(h) intervention and thus providing better understanding for students and practitioners in this field.
Independent International Commission on Kosovo (Kosovo Report): Conflict, International Response and Lessons Learned. Oxford, Oxford Scholarship Online, 1999.
This seminal report assesses the effectiveness of diplomatic efforts to prevent the war, legality of the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, and the progress of the United Nations in post‐conflict reconstruction.
International Council on Human Rights Policy, International Council on Human Rights Policy, Human Rights Crises: NGO Responses to Military Interventions, Versoix, 2002.
This is one of the most detailed and focused discussions on the challenges posed by military interventions in response to human rights violations.
Lillich, Richard B. “Forcible Self-Help by States to Protect Human Rights.” Iowa Law Review 53 (1967): 325–351.
One of the early but still very enlightening discussions on the question of use of force for protection of human rights. Available online by subscription or purchase.
Orford, Anne. Reading Humanitarian Intervention: Human Rights and the Use of Force in International Law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
This revised version provides an innovative reading of the narratives accompanying humanitarian intervention.
Philip, Alston P., and Euan MacDonald, eds. Human Rights, Intervention, and the Use of Force. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.
This is an excellent edited volume on the tension between principle of sovereignty and the obligation to protect human rights in international law.
Reisman, Michael W. “Haiti and the Validity of International Action.” The American Journal of International Law 89.1 (1995): 82–84.
A precise and straightforward discussion addressing specific questions to the seemingly competing principles of state sovereignty and the obligation to protect human rights. Available online by subscription or purchase.
Roberts, Adam. “Humanitarian War: Military Intervention and Human Rights.” International Affairs 69.3 (1993): 429–449.
DOI: 10.2307/2622308
A very lucid discussion of the theory and practice of the unilateral or unauthorized use of force for the protection of human rights. Available online by subscription or purchase.
Ruys, Tom, Olivier Corten, and Alexandra Hofer, eds. The Use of Force in International Law: A Case-based Approach. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
A very recent and eloquent publication tackling the subject of humanitarian intervention by discussing different scenarios of military intervention including by invitation, prodemocracy intervention, and intervention to protect humanitarian intervention.
Schachter, Oscar. International Law in Theory and Practice. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff, 1991.
This book provides a devoted readable, lucid, and persuasive discussion on the law on the use of force both in theory and practice.
Stacy, Helen. “Humanitarian Intervention and Relational Sovereignty.” Stanford Journal of International Relations (2006).
A very well-articulated article that outlines the theory of rational sovereignty involving a social contract between government and its citizens and the role of the international community where government abdicates its duty to protect its citizens.
Tesón, Fernando R. Humanitarian Intervention: An Inquiry into Law and Morality. Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Transnational, 1997.
Presented from both an international law and international relations perspectives, the work is widely regarded as the classic defense of the legality of the use of force for the protection of human rights—humanitarian intervention—in international law.
Thakur, Ramesh. “The Responsibility to Protect at 15.” International Affairs 92.2 (2016): 415–434.
A very detailed account of the genesis of the concept of the responsibility to protect (R2P) from its conception in 2000 to its evolution and subsequent adoption by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005. Available online by subscription or purchase.
Wheeler, Nicholas J., and Alex J. Bellamy. “Humanitarian Intervention after Kosovo: Emergent Norm, Moral Duty or the Coming of Anarchy?” International Affairs 77.1 (2001): 113–128.
An apt and poignant analysis of the ambiguous concept of humanitarian intervention and its validity after the NATO intervention in Kosovo. Available online by subscription or purchase.
Wesley, Michael. “Toward a Realist Ethics of Intervention.” 19 (2) Ethics & International Affairs, 19.2 (2005):55–72.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1747-7093.2005.tb00500.x
An illuminating article which suggests that moral awareness or awareness that morality – not ulterior motives – should be an integral part of the decision to intervene.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Act of State Doctrine
- Africa and Intellectual Property Rights for Plant Varietie...
- African Approaches to International Law
- African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights and the Af...
- Africa’s International Intellectual Property Law Regimes
- Africa’s International Investment Law Regimes
- Agreements, Bilateral and Regional Trade
- Agreements, Multilateral Environmental
- Aliens
- Applicable Law in Investment Agreements
- Archipelagic States
- Arctic Region
- Armed Opposition Groups
- Aut Dedere Aut Judicare
- Balance of Power
- Bandung Conference, The
- Boundaries
- British Mandate of Palestine and International Law, The
- Children's Rights
- China, Judicial Application of International Law in
- China, Law of the Sea in
- Civil Service, International
- Civil-Military Relations
- Codification
- Cold War International Law
- Collective Security
- Command Responsibility
- Common Heritage of Mankind
- Complementarity Principle
- Compliance in International Law
- Conspiracy/Joint Criminal Enterprise
- Constitutional Law, International
- Consular Relations
- Contemporary Catholic Approaches
- Continental Shelf, Idea and Limits of the
- Cooperation in Criminal Matters, Cross-Border
- Countermeasures
- Courts, International
- Crimes against Humanity
- Criminal Law, International
- Cultural Rights
- Cyber Espionage
- Cyber Warfare
- Debt, Sovereign
- Decolonization in International Law
- Democracy
- Development Law, International
- Disarmament in International Law
- Discrimination
- Disputes, Peaceful Settlement of
- Drugs, International Regulation, and Criminal Liability
- Early 19th Century, 1789-1870
- Ecological Restoration and International Law
- Economic Law, International
- Effectiveness and Evolution in Treaty Interpretation
- Enforced Disappearances in International Law
- Enforcement of Human Rights
- Environmental Compliance Mechanisms
- Environmental Institutions, International
- Environmental Law, International
- Estoppel
- European Arrest Warrant
- Exclusive Economic Zone
- Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties
- Fascism and International Law
- Feminist Approaches to International Law
- Financial Law, International
- Forceful Intervention for Protection of Human Rights in Af...
- Foreign Investment
- Fragmentation
- Freedom of Expression
- French Revolution
- Gender and International Law, Theoretical and Methodologic...
- Gender and International Security
- General Customary Law
- General Principles of Law
- Genocide
- Georgia and International Law
- Grotius, Hugo
- Habeas Corpus
- Hijaz and International Law, The
- History of International Law, 1550–1700
- Hostilities, Direct Participation in
- Human Rights
- Human Rights and Regional Protection, Relativism and Unive...
- Human Rights, European Court of
- Human Rights, Foundations of
- Human Rights Law, History of
- Human Trafficking
- Hybrid International Criminal Tribunals
- Immunities
- Immunity, Sovereign
- in Latin America and the Caribbean, International Legal Pr...
- Indigenous Peoples
- Individual Criminal Responsibility
- Institutional Law
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Inte...
- International and Non-International Armed Conflict, Detent...
- International Committee of the Red Cross
- International Community
- International Court of Justice
- International Criminal Court, The
- International Criminal Law, Complicity in
- International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR)
- International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ...
- International Fisheries Law
- International Humanitarian Law
- International Humanitarian Law, China and
- International Humanitarian Law, Targeting in
- International Intellectual Property Law, China and
- International Investment Agreements, Fair and Equitable Tr...
- International Investment Arbitration
- International Investment Law, China and
- International Investment Law, Expropriation in
- International Law, Aggression in
- International Law, Amnesty and
- International Law and Economic Development
- International Law, Anthropology and
- International Law, Big Data and
- International Law, Climate Change and
- International Law, Derogations and Reservations in
- International Law, Dispute Settlement in
- International Law, Ecofeminism and
- International Law, Espionage in
- International Law, Hegemony in
- International Law in Cyberspace, China and
- International Law in Greek
- International Law in Italian
- International Law in Northeast Asia
- International Law in Portuguese
- International Law in Turkish
- International Law, Legitimacy in
- International Law, Marxist Approaches to
- International Law, Military Intervention in
- International Law, Money Laundering in
- International Law, Monism and Dualism in
- International Law, Peacekeeping in
- International Law, Proportionality in
- International Law, Reasonableness in
- International Law, Recognition in
- International Law, Self-Determination in
- International Law, State Responsibility in
- International Law, State Succession in
- International Law, the State in
- International Law, The Turkish-Greek Population Exchange a...
- International Law, the Turn to History in
- International Law, The United States and
- International Law, Trade and Development in
- International Law, Unequal Treaties in
- International Law, Use of Force in
- International Legal Personality
- International Regulation of the Internet
- International Relations Study in China, International Law ...
- International Rule of Law, An
- International Territorial Administration
- International Trade and Human Rights
- Intervention, Humanitarian
- Investment Protection Treaties
- Investor-State Conciliation and Mediation
- Iran and International Law
- Iraq War, Britain and the
- Islamic Cooperation, International Law and the Organizatio...
- Islamic International Law
- Islamic Law and Human Rights
- Islands
- Jerusalem
- Jurisdiction
- Jurisprudence (Judicial Law-Making)
- Jus Cogens
- Just War
- Landlocked Countries and the Law of the Sea
- Law of the Sea
- Law of Treaties, The
- Law-Making by Non-State Actors
- League of Nations, The
- Lebanon, Special Tribunal for
- Legal Pluralism
- Legal Status of Military Forces Abroad
- Liability for International Environmental Harm
- Liberation and Resistance Movements
- Mandates in International Law
- Maritime Delimitation
- Martens Clause
- Medieval International Law
- Mens Rea, International Crimes
- Middle East Boundaries and State Formation
- Migration
- Military Necessity
- Military Occupation
- Minorities
- Modes of Participation
- Most-Favored-Nation Clauses
- Multinational Corporations in International Law
- Nationality and Statelessness
- Natural Law
- Neutrality
- New Approaches to International Law
- New Haven School of International Law, The
- Non liquet
- Noninternational Armed Conflict (“Civil War”)
- Nonstate Actors
- Nuclear Non-Proliferation
- Nuremberg Trials
- Organizations, International
- Pacifism in International Law
- Palestine (and the Israel Question)
- Peace Treaties
- Piracy
- Political Science, International Law and
- Positivism
- Private Military and Security Companies
- Protection, Diplomatic
- Public Interest, Human Rights, and Foreign Investment
- Queering International Law
- Rational Choice Theory
- Recognition of Foreign Penal Judgments
- Refugee Law, China and
- Refugees
- Rendition, Extraterritorial Abduction, and Extraordinary R...
- Reparations
- Russian Approaches to International Law
- Sanctions, International
- Sanctions, International
- Secession
- Self-Defense
- Slavery
- Soft Law
- Space Law
- Spanish School of International Law (c. 16th and 17th Cent...
- Sports Law, International
- State of Necessity
- Superior Orders
- Taba Arbitration, The
- Teaching International Law
- Territorial Title
- Terrorism
- The 1948 Arab-Israeli Conflict and International Law
- The Ottoman Empire and International Law
- Theory, Critical International Legal
- Tibet
- Tokyo Trials, The
- Torture
- Transnational Constitutionalism, Africa and
- Transnational Corruption
- Treaty Interpretation
- Ukrainian Approaches
- UN Partition Plan for Palestine and International Law, The
- UN Security Council, Women and the
- Underwater Cultural Heritage
- Unilateral Acts
- United Nations and its Principal Organs, The
- Universal Jurisdiction
- Uti Possidetis Iuris
- Vatican and the Holy See
- Victims’ Rights, International Criminal Law, and Proceedin...
- War Crimes
- Watercourses, International
- Western Sahara
- World Trade Organization Law, China and