Humanitarian Intervention and International Law
The Doctor Irma M. Parhad Lecture, Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, 13 March 2001; subsequently published in Review of International Affairs, Vol. 1, No. 4 (Summer 2002), pp. 45-56
13 Pages Posted: 26 Sep 2013 Last revised: 9 Oct 2013
Date Written: March 13, 2001
Abstract
The claim of ‘humanitarian intervention’ has been routinely abused by militarily powerful states of the North in order to justify military aggression against weaker States and Peoples of the South. This alleged doctrine violates the terms of the United Nations Charter and has been decisively repudiated by the International Court of Justice in two separate decisions. Major military powers such as the United States and members of the NATO Alliance have been behind most of the major humanitarian atrocities and catastrophes in the modern world. Their criminal mistreatment of the Bosnians and Palestinians is specifically discussed.
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