The Problematic of the Humanitarian Intervention and the Sovereignty of the State

The global interest and the increased number of international agreements about human rights led to the international humanitarian intervention as a means of standing up for those rights and guarding them from violation because this was the stigma of the current age. The constitution, which gave justifications for humanitarian intervention, was based on article 1, section 3 from the goals of the UN. Thus, human rights represent the international public interest, but the humanitarian international intervention became the problem of this age. This was because of the incompatibility of this idea with some of the fixed international principles of the international general law in the charter of the UN namely: non-intervention, no use of force in the international relations and sovereignty. The aforementioned mentioned principles conflicted with the idea of intervention for humanitarian consideration. Consequently, this study was based on the international principles, their agreement with the idea of intervention and the possibility of legalizing it. The researcher concluded that there was a juristic dispute about the legality of intervention based on humanitarian considerations between opponents and supporters. This was and still is a controversial issue until nowadays without any legal frame to organize the idea of intervention for humanitarian considerations. Intervention was and still considered one of the most controversial topics in the common law between the jurisconsults and writers since the latest developments added some obvious changes to the legal concepts about human rights and sovereignty. This was the reason behind making international decisions in some matters either by the UN itself or under its supervision. It could also be done on its behalf or by many other countries. In the meantime, intervention was considered a violation of peace and international security, so the UNs request not to intervene -considering it an intervention by itself- was a violation of human rights, peace and international security. This study tackled the topic of human intervention and its dilemma with countries’ sovereignty, so the study was limited to the principle of intervention, but the topic of non-intervention was a research must. In other words, every time the topic was studied, the researcher had to deal with the principle of non-intervention in order to have a comprehensive study. This study was divided into two chapters. The first chapter talked about the principle of non-intervention in the international general law; it was divided into three sections. The first section, talked about the evolution of the concept of non-intervention and its legal basis while the second tackled the evolution of the concept of non-intervention in the modern international law. Finally, the last section talked about the legal basis of intervention, its definition, means and types. The second chapter was dedicated to study the international humanitarian intervention and the regression of the concept of sovereignty. The first section talked about the regression of the concept of sovereignty in light of the international developments and updates. Thus, the second chapter organized the idea of sovereignty according to the traditional and modern definition. The last chapter talked about the applications of the reality of humanitarian intervention through listing some of the examples of the UN’s interventions and demanding to fix the damage. In the methodology section, the researcher depended on keeping the balance of the chapters and themes concluding the study with the most important results and suggestions. The latter included that agreements are not enough, and it is necessary to demand to find a legal frame organizing human intervention for humanitarian considerations in the shadow of the UN and under its direct supervision. In other words, the third world countries should work on respecting human rights and support them. They shouldn’t violate those rights, so that it doesn’t leave space for any intervention in the internal affairs. In addition, the tremendous violations of human rights are still ongoing that the theory of sovereignty in the modern world is misused to justify the internal tyranny and international chaos. Finally, the most eloquent words are what the all-knowing Ibn Khaldon said when he concluded his book “Al-Moqadima”. Thus, he said: “After that, I am certain about the palaces among the dwellers of the ages. I confess my inability to go on in such a way wishing that others help based on good intention not gratification. I also ask to dedicate my deeds to God”.