Humanitarian intervention: morality and international law on intolerable violations of human rights

Author: Eric Heinze

Source: The International Journal of Human Rights, Volume 8, Number 4, Winter 2004 , pp. 471-490(20)

Publisher: Routledge, part of the Taylor & Francis Group

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Abstract:

Using the concept of 'gross violations of human rights' as a guiding principle for humanitarian intervention, this essay argues that a hierarchy of human rights is supported not only by moral reasoning, but by an overwhelming body of international law and jurisprudence. I first put forth a normative argument that suggests the violation of certain rights - and the extent to which these violations occur - are morally intolerable and grounds for the use of force to protect individuals from such abuses. I then argue that a commensurate hierarchy of rights (violations) can be distilled from an analysis of international crimes to which universal jurisdiction is attached. This essay concludes that the principle of universal jurisdiction provides a legal standard that suggests certain human rights violations are morally intolerable, thus subject to humanitarian intervention.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: 10.1080/1364298042000283549

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