Sovereignty and humanitarian intervention

Abstract

In this article author analyzed the notion of humanitarian intervention and its relation to the notion of the state sovereignty. Intervention into domestic affairs of one state for humanitarian purposes represents one of the most complex legal and political issues in modern international relations. There is no doubt that a drastic breach of human rights, the genocide and racial, national and religious discrimination of large proportions make for a necessary intervention of international community, that implies the violation of sovereignty of the state where the drastic crimes in question have occurred. However, the hitherto practice has shown that very often the humanitarian purposes have been used as a pretext for the intervention of completely different objectives often directly contrasted to the humanitarian causes itself, therefore putting the whole concept of humanitarian intervention under suspicion. In the article there are also presented several characteristic examples by which the author tried to clarify the notion of humanitarian intervention.

U ovom radu razmatran je pojam humanitarna intervencija i njegov odnos prema pojmu državnog suvereniteta. Intervencija u unutrašnje stvari jedne zemlje iz humanitarnih razloga predstavlja jedno od najsloženijih pravnih i političkih pitanja savremenih odnosa u međunarodnoj zajednici. Nema sumnje da teško kršenje ljudskih prava, genocid, rasna, nacionalna i verska diskriminacija većih razmera, čine neophodnom intervenciju međunarodne zajednice, koje podrazumeva narušavanje suvereniteta države u kojoj dolazi do tako teških zloupotreba. Međutim, dosadašnja praksa pokazuje da su humanitarni razlozi često korišćeni kao izgovor za intervenciju koja je imala potpuno drugačije ciljeve, često direktno suprotstavljanje razlozima humanosti, što ceo koncept humanitarnih intervencija stavlja pod ozbiljnu sumnju. U radu je navedeno i nekoliko karakterističnih primera kroz koje se pokušava osvetliti pojam humanitarne intervencije.