Intervention to Protect Civilians in Darfur Legal Dilemmas and Policy Imperatives

Abstract

"This study is divided into five parts. The introductory part gives a background of the Darfur crisis by examining the origins and nature of human rights violations taking place in that part of the Sudan. It also reviews initial responses to the atrocities by the international community and sets out the conceptual parameters of the “responsibility to protect” and “humanitarian intervention”. In the second part, the author examines the possible legal and policy objections to humanitarian intervention. Part three focuses on the normative framework for the responsibility to protect civilians in Darfur by responding to an array of questions in the nature: how, when and by whom. Part four discusses the roles of the international community, particularly the UN and AU by focusing on the institutional and legal apparatus relevant to humanitarian intervention. The fourth and final part sums up the main conclusions and recommendations of the study. In sum, the author concludes that in contemporary international law, humanitarian intervention is sustainable in case of serious human rights violations and that the international law principle of sovereignty has acceded to this exception."