... threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." (MLK)
The international community strongly denounced the violence in Syria but so far it hasn’t been able to provide an effective framework to prevent and stop these atrocities. The responsibility to protect (R2P) doctrine - adopted in 2005 to embody the promises made by world leaders to prevent a future “Cambodia”, “Bosnia” and “Rwanda” - could neither prevent nor save Syria.
The humanitarian ...
... interventions, having United Nations authorization represents broad support and eliminates cases where the “responsibility to protect” rhetoric is used to cover up military intervention that does not serve humanitarian purposes.
The norm of the responsibility to protect was unanimously adopted by all UN Member States (Libya and Syria were among those who endorsed this norm, but have failed to uphold it). Any military intervention outside of a UN Security Council mandate is subject to severe criticism and censure, and should be considered as a forceful infringement on the sovereignty ...
... of some nations, including China and Russia. This is partly responsible for the failure on the part of the Security Council to take any decisive actions on Syria – Russia now suspects Western nations of pushing their own geopolitical agendas in Syria. Such excess of UN mandate as in Libya might have jeopardized the concept of the responsibility to protect and pushed more countries away from arriving at a solid agreement on the practical implementations of military interventions.
Additionally, having a clear mandate helps to manage the expectations of the local population. When ...
... UN continues to fail to take appropriate actions to stop crimes against humanity.[4]
Considering that all peaceful means have proven inadequate in Syria and the fact that its national authorities have manifestly failed to protect their populations, Syria, with its massive crimes against humanity should be a perfect candidate for military intervention according to the norm of the responsibility to protect. It seems that a just cause is present, yet the international community is paralyzed with inaction.
Criterion 3: Right Intention
Military intervention is not as humanitarian as it might initially seem. Humanitarian workers ...
... means often comes at a cost of more victims and suffering. Thus we should assess upfront if peaceful means will have a chance of success in order to avoid wasting too much time stagnating on approaches that are unlikely to succeed.
For example in Syria, for almost two years now the international community has tried unsuccessfully to rely upon peaceful means such as six-point Annan’s plan, the UN observer mission, a GA resolution, and presidential statements to condemn the violence, but these ...
... chose the course of intervention in the case Libya, but weren’t effectively able to do so in cases like Rwanda, Bosnia and Syria? How do we guarantee that a decision to intervene is a just one – that the objective does not lead to the use of intervention ... ... against humanity in that country and authorized all necessary measures to protect civilians.
Thus, enshrined in the concept of responsibility to protect case by case basis of making decision on conducting military interventions encourages politicization ...
