Publisher's Synopsis
"If humanitarian intervention is indeed an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica - to gross and systematic violations of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity?"--Kofi Annan, Millennium Report of Secretary-General of the United Nations, 2000 *** The core objective of the United Nations is to strive towards peace and security in international community. The recent flow of refugees to Europe has led to questions regarding whether the international community could help both people facing abuses of their fundamental rights, as well as the European countries to which they are immigrating. Since 1945, the use of force has been prohibited with no mention of interventions for humanitarian purposes. The question remains: when can unauthorised humanitarian intervention as a last resort measure be justified in a world of jus cogens prohibition of the use of force? In public international law, new rules of customary law emerge through sufficient State practice and opinio juris. Due to this, humanitarian interventions could be justified under customary international law. Always, when concerned with the protection of human rights, specific criteria should be created in order to prevent abuses. This book is a master thesis that aims to answer the question of whether the use of force is justifiable for humanitarian purposes without the United Nations Security Council approval. The author draws examples from Iraq and Kosovo cases, and the evolving customary international law. [Subject: Human Rights Law, United Nations, Public International Law]
