Legitimacy of the Policies of Humanitarian Interventions

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume IV, Issue VIII, August 2020 | ISSN 2454–6186

Legitimacy of the Policies of Humanitarian Interventions

Vardaan Shekhawat

Department of Political Sciences, University of Delhi, Kirori Mal College, India

Abstract: Driven by fundamental national interests hidden under the garb of universal welfare and protection of human rights. Humanitarian Interventions have become one of the biggest sources of tension, contention and dis-harmony in the international arena. This paper therefore, seeks to understand the nuances of mandated and unmadated interventions, dealing with the dilemma of their legitimacy by attempting to realize the trade-off between protecting rights and guaranteeing sovereignty which comes with its own risks when looked at from a realist perspective. Therefore, the paper seeks to clearly define interventions, lay out a historical analysis, put forth legal and institutional contentions vis-a-vis interventions by looking at roles of international bodies in regulating and governing such intervention and thereafter puts forth a conclusive narrative and value-judgement on humanitarian interventions based on the afore mentioned study.

Keywords: Legitimacy, Humanitarian Interventions, Human Rights, Law, United Nations, Politics, Armed Conflict, International, Relations.

I. INTRODUCTION

The aim of this academic text is to act as a standpoint in understanding humanitarian intervention and in raising questions on the legitimacy and legality of Humanitarian Intervention as a concept administered in the international sphere with suspicion and questions concerning interventions as a means to fulfilling national interest and agendas, for instance the questions raised on the Coalition of Willing and In the aftermath of the war in Bosnia, the genocide in Rwanda.
Further the NATO strikes in Kosovo and Serbia without Security Council mandate, global public concern led to the formulation of Responsibility to Protect. (Chinkin, Kaldor, 2018) The question here is then the mandating, authorizing and legally identifying interventions as legitimate under the international concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Hence, the paper briefly also talks of the international legislatures and cases of humanitarian intervention through which a precedent of just and legitimate interventions can be attempted to be established.

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