Do we have an obligation to intervene on humanitarian grounds? Should the United Nations be the worlds police?

Question

The Cold War is now over but the world is experiencing increased ethnic, religious, and political fragmentation. This has resulted in cases of genocide, massive abuses of human rights, starvation, aggression, and forced movements of people. The world community has to decide how to respond to this massive human suffering.

Answer 1

i don't know why the cold war is relevant; human rights abuses occurred before (holocaust), during (pol pot killed 2 million cambodians in the 70's) and after. however, all the above listed atrocities do occur, and genocide also includes rape which is one of the most common acts of genocide that goes unnoticed. the UN is the international regulatory body of such acts, and often has intervened on humanitarian grounds. it is of common scholarly opinion that article 2/4 which prevents the use of force can be usurped in cases of human rights abuses. the main reason for this is because the primary function of the UN is to protect humanity from the "scourge of war" after the horrific casualties suffered in WW1.

Answer 2

Most people are never going to support the idea of a world government, nor a world police force. They loathe the idea of their nation's independence/sovereignty being usurped in any way. Millions even loathe the idea of their *region's* independence being curbed by their own national government. The idea of a world police force sounds too monolithic, too uncontrollable, too prone to misuse, and too much of a threat to individual liberties.  

Most people prefer keeping the UN General Assembly as just a discussion forum, and having the various UN agencies (UNICEF, UNDP, WHO, WFP, etc.) able to enter a country *only* at the invitation of that country.

Most people prefer keeping their nation's sovereignty, and when they want change in another country, they prefer calling on their own government to take action, per the will of their own people. Most people would be bitterly opposed to offensive/invasive military actions by a world police, no matter how good the intentions.

As much as I am a UN supporter, I don't like the idea of a world police at all.

Answer 3

for as long as we hv despotic, incompetent rulers / politicians, the need for another supra national authority to help ease the sufferings of the populace is evident and inevitable.  its a question of how, when.  how to intervene when a country is in disarray.  is it man made or natural?  

rwanda is an example of how the international police cld hv helped to avert the genocide but failed 'cos of political factors.  here we see the need for strong decisive action by the international community.  in this case, they were too soft.  UN still dont hv that political clout to create peace and avert danger.  darfur is another  example of failure.

the powers tt control UN refused to allow it to do more. hence measly humanitarian work is being done by international bodies. and no one in UN wants to make tt decision to intervene politically.   USA had done it in somalia but failed.  this is intricate - geopolitics, self interest etc are factors tt complicate matters.  there's lots of subjectivity and hence indecision.

this leads to composition of the security council.  shld it be enlarged?  shld veto powers remain? shld the 5 holders continue when their supremacy is already denuded.  is this outmoded?

  these r the debates tt will continue for yrs to come and doubtful if a solution can be had. it boils down to that individual tt holds power - the president, prime minister, a govt's foreign policy, economic standing, self interest etc.  

wouldnt it be ideal if UN can have resources to ease human suffering.  it also boils down to education, equality of man and woman; latter taking its rightful place in global governance- hence suffering may be reduced if not eliminated.  which mother want to send their sons to fight?

we all wait in vain for the great peace to come!

Answer 4

You said it right. There are regions where governments committing crime on their populations has become the main activity. This absolute power of governments and its Anarchical variants must be curbed and only UN and its organs have the moral right and mandate to do it. A modus operandi needs to be evolved. There should be a check on governments' and administrations' abuse of their own people in the interests of humanity. This implies policing of governments on humanitarian demends.