Humanitarian Intervention: A New Perspective

Humanitarian intervention is a much debated topic in international law. Military action taken by the states solely for the protection of human rights against the other state highlighted a tension between the concepts of state sovereignty and protection of human rights proclaimed by the UN charter. To overcome this tension principle of responsibility to protect was formulated which demands that international community has the responsibility to react in instances of human right violations taking place in any state. Starting from humanitarian intervention to the formulation of principle of responsibility to protect this article examines how far the R2P is successful in addressing the problems faced by the humanitarian intervention and whether its established as a legal norm of international law with particular reference to the Libya humanitarian intervention as a case study.