Turn a blind eye or intervene?
5. June 2008
Konstanz, 5. 6. 2008: Between 800,000 and 1 million people were murdered in the 1994 Rwandan genocide. 8000 Muslim men and boys were murdered by Serbian and Serbo-Bosnian troops in the Bosnian city of Srebrenica in 1195. Both of these genocides were carried out literally under the very eyes of UN soldiers that were either forbidden from intervening or dared not do so.
In light of these experiences a resolution was passed at the United Nations 2005 Summit outlining the Principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The resolution highlights the responsibility of the state to protect its citizens from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity. The principle of the Responsibility to Protect also makes explicit mention of the responsibility of the international community to intervene when individual states are unwilling or unable to protect its citizens.
But in practice international interventions remain controversial. Initiatives to provide a UN mandate for an intervention are often blocked by the vetoes of Security Council members. One example of this trend is the inability of the United Nations to take decisive action to end the violence and suffering in the southern Sudanese province of Darfur. According to UN estimates approximately 300,000 people have died in Darfur to date and a further 2 million displaced persons now live in refugee camps in Sudan and Chad. The catastrophic floods in Burma recently revived the debate on the subject of interventions: should the international community have intervened in Burma to stop the loss of life?
But aren’t international interventions simply another means of pursuing economic interests? Is their a fundamental conflict between the two basic principles of the United Nations – the inviolability of human rights and national sovereignty? Is the United Nations capable of delivering its promise to protect human rights across the globe? Or should the responsibility for this task lie in the hands of an alliance of democratic states?
The series will open on 10 June with a lecture by Tom Koenigs, a former United Nations special representative to Afghanistan. On19 June the lecture series will continue with Arne Perras, foreign correspondent for the Süddeutschen Zeitung in Kampala (Uganda) since 2006. On 23 June the series will host a lecture by the former Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs and president of the Brussels-based “International Crisis Group”, Gareth Evans. On 26 June Wolfgang Ischinger, former German ambassador to Washington and London and current chairperson of the Munich Conference on Security Policy, will share his views on international crisis management and interventions. On 2 July Karsten D. Voigt, the coordinator for German – American co-operation in the Federal Foreign Office will review the state of German – American relations at the end of the Bush-era. And finally, Gunter Pleuger, former ambassador at the German Permanent Mission to the United Nations will speak on 14 July about the political and international legal challenges of multilateral crisis management.
All lectures will be held at 4.15 pm in auditorium R 611 at the University of Konstanz. Members of the public are warmly invited to attend.