Humanitarian

Intervention
POL 3113
Issues in Contemporary World Politics
Hsin-wen Lee

CHARLES BEITZ

WHAT HUMAN RIGHTS MEAN?

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

(1948 UN General Assembly)

Multicultural
Composed by an international community of
experts representing a great range of ethical
traditions
Merit: avoid disagreement
Problem:

(36)

(37)

Multiple Interpretations
Possible conflicts
Who should do what?

Universal Declaration of Human Rights

A list of generalized, abstract
rights that might exist in a state X
of nature.
A list of concrete institutional

standards.
They are the necessary conditions of
political legitimacy, or even social justice
(38)

(39)

Function of Human Rights

Human rights violation may create justification
for foreign intervention
(2003, 39)

A governments human rights record can serve as

a criterion of eligibility for participation in
bilateral and multilateral development programs
and of its success to financial adjustment
assistance.
NGO

Human Rights Natural Rights

Natural rights are pre-institutional; some human
rights are necessarily institutional
(41)

Natural rights belong to people naturally; human

rights are special rights (*i.e., as rights arising out
of peoples relationships as participants in a global
political economy. See next slide.)
(43)

Natural rights are timeless; human rights are not

(e.g. HR does not apply to the Ch'ing dynasty.)

(43)

HLA Hart on Rights

General vs. Special

Special Rights

(42)

arise out of special transactions or relationships,

e.g., promises, contracts, membership in some
group.

General Rights
belong to all men capable of choice in the
absence of those special conditions which give rise
to special rights.
7

Human Rights=
the basic requirement of global justice
Human rights state conditions that domestic social
institutions should satisfy in order to respect the
dignity and Worth inherent in human person.
Serious violation of human rights could justify some
appropriate form of remedial action by agents
outside of the society where the violation occurs.
8

Charles Beitz

HUMAN RIGHTS AS A
COMMON CONCERN
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5 (convenient) Categories of Human Rights

1.

2.

3.
4.

5.

Rights of the person refer to life, liberty, and security of the person privacy and
freedom of movement; ownership of property; freedom of thought, conscience, and
religion, including freedom of religious teaching and practice in public and
private; and prohibition of slavery, torture, and cruel or degrading punishment.
Rights associated with the rule of law include equal recognition before the law
and equal protection of the law; effective legal remedy for violation of legal rights;
impartial hearing and trial; presumption of innocence; and prohibition of arbitrary
arrest.
Political rights encompass freedom of expression, assembly, and association; the
right to take part in government; and periodic and genuine elections by universal
and equal suffrage.
Economic and social rights refer to an adequate standard of living; free choice of
employment; protection against unemployment; just and favorable remuneration;
the right to join trade unions; reasonable limitation of working hours; free
elementary education; social security; and the highest attainable standard of
physical and mental health.
Rights of communities include self-determination and protection of minority
cultures. (271)
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Human Rights as Partisan Standards

Asian Values
International pressure for domestic
political reform was inappropriate

(271)

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Human Rights Violation & Intervention

Objection to Human Rights Intervention:
Paternalism: Limiting the liberty on the grounds
that those whose liberty is limited will be better off
as a result of the interference
(2001, 273)

Beitzs Reply:
Misconception: US & THEM
Paternalism= an intervention in a persons self-regarding
choices on the grounds that the intervention is good for
that person.
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The Doctrine of Human Rights

The doctrine is common in the sense that,
considered in light of the political purposes it
is expected to serve, reasonable persons could
accept it despite differences in their reasonable
conceptions of the good.
(2001: 278)

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Legitimate States Have Sovereignty.

Some states fail to
protect the human
rights of its
citizens.

Others actively
violate the human
rights of its
citizens.

Question: Should another state

intervene?
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Political Sovereignty

Traditional View: Absolute

Modern: Bounded (by Human
Rights)
15

CHRISTOPHER WELLMAN

TAKING HUMAN RIGHTS

SERIOUSLY
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Thesis
If we take human rights as seriously as we
should, then even a legitimate state has no
principled objection to outsiders
intervening in its internal affairs if this
interference will prevent just a single
human rights violation.
(119)

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 State Sovereignty=
A countrys moral dominion over its self-regarding affairs.
A right of self-determination which includes a claim
against external intervention. (119)

conflict?
Human Rights=
a subset of individual moral rights which are distinguished
by their connection to human needs.
Human rights are the protections generally needed against
the standard and direct threats to leading a minimally
decent human life in modern society.
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Question

To intervene, or not to Intervene?

Must we respect a states sovereignty when

we reasonably believe that our unsolicited
intervention will successfully avert human
rights violations?
(119-20)

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State Legitimacy
Transactional Account

(120)

Problem: John Simmons

Functional Account
(e.g. domestic security; human rights protection, etc.)
Perfect performance
Satisfactory performance (121)
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Legitimate States
Legitimate states have a right against external
interference, even in cases where other states and/ or
international bodies could do more good than harm.
(122)

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Objection
Human rights issues are urgent
Human rights issues take precedence over more
general concern to respect the sovereignty of
legitimate states.
(122)

States lack a right against external intervention even

if they were satisfactorily performing their requisite
political functions.
(123)

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Option

(123)

Problems

(123-4)

Insist that perfection is

necessary for state
legitimacy

The standard is implausibly

high?

Deny that legitimacy

entitles a state to
political selfdetermination.
Deny that human rights
should be taken as
seriously as the objector
recommends.

If so, then there is no

principled reason against
forced annexation.
even a single human rights
violation provides us with
sufficient cause to intervene
in an unquestionably
legitimate state.
(124)

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Revised Understanding of State Sovereignty

Affirming the right to intervene (to avert a human rights
violation) does not negate a legitimate states sovereignty.
Sovereignty can be unbundled. (Joan & Rita)
(126)

Good record up to date warrants a states sovereignty;

however, it does not warrant the right against intervention
when human rights violation occurs.
(127)

Mirroring our view of political obligation: duty to obey

the just laws of a just state only; no duty to obey unjust
law
(128-9)

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Theory & Practice

The means of intervention must be proportional to the

end (of protecting human rights).
(130)

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