CONCEPT OF RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT

The concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) imposes on states the obligation to protect their populations according
the “human security” concept against massive human rights violations such as massacres, ethnic cleansing, and
violations of women’s rights such as sexualized violence in war and mass rapes. The concept of “Responsibility to
Protect” was first used in a report by that name, published in 2001 by experts of the International Commission on
Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), which was convened at the initiative of the Canadian Government. State
sovereignty, according to the commission, includes obligations to protect – i.e., the responsibility to prevent, the
responsibility to react, and the responsibility to rebuild.

WHAT IS HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION?

Humanitarian intervention has been defined as a state's use of military force against another state, with publicly
stating its goal is to end human rights violations in that state.[1] This definition may be too narrow as it precludes non-
military forms of intervention such as humanitarian aid and international sanctions. On this broader understanding,
"Humanitarian intervention should be understood to encompass… non-forcible methods, namely intervention
undertaken without military force to alleviate mass human suffering within sovereign borders."

There is not one standard or legal definition of humanitarian intervention; the field of analysis (such as law, ethics or
politics) often influences the definition that is chosen. Differences in definition include variations in whether
humanitarian intervention is limited to instances where there is an absence of consent from the host state; whether
humanitarian intervention is limited to punishment actions; and whether humanitarian intervention is limited to cases
where there has been explicit UN Security Council authorization for action. There is, however, a general consensus
on some of its essential characteristics:

1. Humanitarian intervention involves the threat and use of military forces as a central feature
2. It is an intervention in the sense that it entails interfering in the internal affairs of a state by sending military
forces into the territory or airspace of a sovereign state that has not committed an act of aggression against
another state.
3. The intervention is in response to situations that do not necessarily pose direct threats to states' strategic
interests, but instead is motivated by humanitarian objectives.

CHAPTER VII OF THE UNITED NATIONS CHARTER

Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UN Security Council's powers to maintain peace. It allows the
Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or act of aggression" and to take
military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and security".

WHEN DOES THE UN CHARTER ALLOW THE USE OF FORCE?

Article 51 provides for the right of countries to engage in self-defence, including collective self-defence, against an
armed attack.

• Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an
armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures
necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this
right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the
authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action
as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.