BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

THE LEGAL STATUS OF HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION UNDER CURRENT INTERNATIONAL LAW

Author: Liaquat A. Siddiqui

DOI Link: DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2005v26n4a2

ABSTRACT

Humanitarian intervention carried out with the authorisation of the Security Council is considered legal, but the status of such intervention carried out without the authorisation of the Security Council is not yet legally settled. Humanitarian intervention raises tension between the principles of state sovereignty and protection of human rights. Moral justifications de lege ferendafor humanitarian intervention even without the authorisation of the Security Council are persuasive. But in view of the settled principle of non-use of force, the legal basis for such intervention de lege latais difficultto establish. To many scholars there is no customary rule of humanitarian intervention independent of the provisions of the UN Charter, even though they agree that there is an emerging felt need for the formulation of such rules. This article takes cognizance of the reality that if unanimous intervention is allowed under the current decentralised international legal system, even on humanitarian ground, it might be carried out to fulfil ulterior motives by powerful state or group of states. It, therefore,makes a case for the explicit development of an international legal framework for humanitarian intervention based on the principles of rule of law, sovereign equality and justice.