Title: Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and intervention
1Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Disposition Lecture 4
- Humanitarian challenges and
interventions - The concept of Humanitarianism
- Evolution of the humanitarian Idea
- Humanitarian Law
- Human Rights
2Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Humanitarianism
- The concern for human well-being
- Humanitarian
- A person who actively engages in promoting human
welfare - Each humanitarian is free to determine what
actions promote human welfare - Hence, it is hard to say what humanitarianism is
3Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Evolution of the humanitarian idea
- Human rights have a long history in theory and
have even been practised occasionally - It was, however, the American (1776) and French
(1789) revolutions that sought to create national
politics based on broadly shared human rights. - Despite the rhetorics of universality, human
rights, however, remained essentially a concern
for the sovereign national state, whether to be
accepted or not, until the end of WW II when they
were recognised in (global) international law
4Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Separate between
- International law (including human rights)
- and
- International humanitarian law (Laws of war)
5Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Humanitarian Law
- The battle of Solferino (1859) between Austria
and France. More than 40.000 troops lay scattered
on the battlefield - Henri Dunant (a Swiss businessman and pacifist)
saw the damages of the battlefield and started to
help the wounded - Convinced Napoleon III to render the first
official proclamation regarding the rights of
those suffering from war injuries
6Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Napoleon III ordered the release of all Austrian
doctors and surgeons so that they could return to
their regiments and threat their wounded - For some Dunants response to the battle of
Solferino marks the beginning of modern
humanitarian action - Dunant later founded the Red Cross in Geneva in
1864 (ICRC) - The same year the First Geneva Convention to
protect the sick and wounded in war time was
signed - There is an intimately connection between The Red
Cross and the drafting and enforcement of (later)
Geneva conventions
7Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- In 1899 a treaty concerning asphyxiating
(kvävande) gases and expanding bullets were
signed - In 1907, 13 separate treaties were signed,
followed in 1925 by the Geneva Gas Protocol,
which prohibited the use of poison gas and the
practice of bacteriological warfare - In 1929, two more Geneva Conventions dealt with
the treatment of wounded and prisoners of war
were signed
8Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- In 1949, four Geneva Conventions extended
protections to those shipwrecked at sea and to
civilians - I) For the amelioration of the condition of the
wounded and sick in armed forces in the field.
Sets forth the protections for members of the
armed forces who become wounded or sick - II) Extends the protections to wounded sick and
shipwrecked members of naval forces
9Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Lists the rights of prisoners of war
- Deals with the protection of the civilian
population in times of war - Two additional protocols in 1977
- Extends protection to victims of wars against
racist regimes, wars of self determination, and
against alien oppression - Extends protection to victims of internal
conflicts in which an armed opposition controls
enough territory to enable them to carry out
sustained military operations
10Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Hence, there is no one Geneva Convention. Like
any other body of international law, the laws of
war have been assembled piecemeal, and are, in
fact, still under construction - It is impossible to produce a complete and
up-to-date list of war crimes. Even today, weapon
systems such as land mines are being debated at
the highest level of international politics - But, the most basic protections and prohibitions
are to be found in the four conventions and the
two 1977 protocols
11Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- International rules about soldiers
- Distinction between combatants and civilians
- A civilian who shoots a soldiers may be liable
for murder while a soldier who shoots an enemy
soldier and is captured may not be punished - Combatants must wear uniforms and carry their
weapons openly during military operations and
during preparation for them
12Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Medical and religious personal are considered as
non-combatants even though they may wear uniform.
Medical personnel may also carry small arms to
use in self-defence if illegally attacked - Mercenaries are specifically excluded from
protections - Combatants who deliberately violate the rules
about maintaining a clear division between
combatant and non-combatant groups are no longer
protected by the Geneva conventions
13Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Combatants who do fall within the guidelines of
the Geneva conventions enjoy the following
protections - Prisoners of war must be treated humanely (No
torture, medical or scientific experiments.
Protection against violence intimidation (hot),
insults, and public curiosity. The public display
of POWs is also prohibited S. Hussein) - POW must only give their names, ranks, birth
dates and serial numbers - POW must be immediately evacuated away from a
combat zone . They may not be used as human
shields - POW may not be punished for the acts the
committed during the fighting unless the opposing
side would have punished its own soldiers for
those acts as well
14Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- International rules about civilians (during war
time) - Civilians are not to be subject to attack
- There is to be no destruction of property unless
justified by military necessity - Individuals or groups must not be deported,
regardless of motive - Civilians must not be used as hostages
- Civilians must not be subjected to outrages upon
personal dignity (våld mot den personliga
värdigheten) - Civilians must not be tortured, raped or enslaved
15Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Civilians must not be subjected to collective
punishment and reprisals - Civilians must not receive differential treatment
based on race, religion, nationality, or
political allegiance - Warring parties must not use or develop
biological weapons and must not not allow
children under 15 participate in hostilities or
to be recruited into the armed forces
16Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- International rules about journalists
- Journalists are considered civilians and must
therefore not be deliberately targeted, detained
(kvarhållna), or otherwise or mistreated any
more than any other civilian - May not wear uniforms and openly carrying firearms
17Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Grievance procedures (klagan)
- If a person or group fells that their rights have
been violated, there are a number of agencies and
organisation to whom they may turn to for help - ICRC
- UN
- Amnesty International
- Human Rights Watch
- Doctors without Borders, et cetera
18Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- How are war criminals prosecuted under
humanitarian law? - On becoming party to the Geneva conventions,
States undertake to enact any legislation
necessary to punish persons guilty of grave
breaches of the conventions - States are also bound to prosecute in their own
courts any person suspected of having committed
any grave breach of the conventions, or to hand
that person over for judgment to another state - Hence, suspected war criminals must be prosecuted
at all times and all places, and States are
responsible for ensuring that this is done
19Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- What happens when a state does not fulfil its
obligations? Does there exist any international
legal order? - Nuremberg and Tokyo after the end of WW II
- Ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals
- Rwanda (Arusha) and former Yugoslavia (The Hague)
- Ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals
- International Criminal Court (The Hague)
- Established by the Rome Statute (1998)
- Permanent court
- Entered into force 1/7 2002
- See www.unorg/law/icc/
20Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- The International Human Rights Regime is an
established feature of contemporary world
society, and a good example of the processes of
globalisation - Modern thinking distinguishes between three
generations of rights first, broadly political,
second, economic and social, third, the rights of
peoples - One major set of contemporary problems concerns
compliance and enforcement
21Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- More recently, the universal status of human
rights has come to be challenged by critics who
stress the western, masculine, intolerant nature
of this universalism. - We need to establish the status of rights what
a right is, what kind of rights people have,
whether rights imply duties, and why?
22Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- The distinction between rights as claims,
liberties, powers, and immunities helps to
clarify these questions - The origin of thinking about rights can be traced
to two features of medieval political and
intellectual life, the doctrine of natural law
and the political practice of extracting charters
of liberties
23Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Natural Law generates universal rights and
duties, while a Charter confers local and
particular liberties. The actual rights and
liberties conveyed by Charters may be compatible
with natural law, but this compatibility cannot
be relied upon and a potential conflict exists
between these two sources of the idea of rights
24Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- From out of Medieval theory and practice a
synthesis emerged, the Liberal Position on Human
Rights, which combines universal and
particularist thinking universal rights
established by a contract between rulers and
ruled. - This position is conceptually suspect, but
politically and rhetorically powerful.
25Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Nineteenth century liberalism supported
international humanitarian reform but within the
limits of the norms of sovereignty and
non-intervention. - For some liberals these latter norms did not
apply when the Standards of Civilisation were in
question. Twentieth Century thinking on human
rights has been less restrictive, largely because
of the horrors of the World Wars and the
Holocaust
26Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- 1948 and the modern agenda
- UNDHR (1948) OH
- The politics of the Universal Declaration of 1948
allow us to identify the three major human rights
issues of the post 1945 era - First, there is the contest between the old norm
of sovereignty and the new norm of universal
domestic standards - Second, there is the contest between political
and liberal and social and economic formulations
of human rights - Finally, there is the assertion of the rights of
peoples to be different
27Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- The Politics of Human Rights promotion
- The politics of rights varies according to
whether constitutional or non-constitutional
regimes are involved - In any event, the international community rarely
acts on human rights cases unless public opinion
is engaged - Economic and social rights are conceptually
different from political rights, and present a
more basic challenge to existing norms of
sovereignty and non-intervention
28Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Universalism challenged
- The human rights template severely limits the
degree of acceptable variation in social
practices. - This universalism can be challenged on feminist
grounds as privileging patriarchy. - More generally, the liberal position on rights
privileges a particular account of human dignity.
- Cultural critics of universal rights such as
proponents of Asian Values can be seen as
self-serving, but, by definition, no neutral
criteria for assessing this criticism can exist.
29Conflict Theory Humanitarian challenges and
intervention
- Conclusion
- Separate between Humanitarian law and Human
Rights - Luxemburgs figure
- Humanitarian intervention --gt
- What is the problem with humanitarian
interventions?