On The Challenge Of Humanitarian Intervention To The United Nations Collective Security Mechanism

The traditional theory of “humanitarian intervention” has been formed in modern international law.However,since the creation of the UN charter in 1945,humanitarian elements are not included in the collective security mechanisms of the United Nations,nor does contemporary international law recognize the right to humanitarian intervention,which makes it difficult to establish the legitimacy of humanitarian intervention.Since the end of the cold war,there have been some new developments in the international community.By adopting a resolution,the Security Council expanded the interpretation of the “threat to peace and breach of peace” stipulated in the UN charter,and gave itself the “legitimacy” to authorize the use of force on humanitarian grounds.Under the political dominance of big powers,the connotation of “humanitarianism” has turned to be politicized;if the Security Council fails to reach a resolution in its favour,the west will throw off the shackles of the collective security mechanism and seek unilateral solutions.The “Responsibility to Protect” theory,which was born in the 21 st century,hopes to achieve the goal of more active international human rights protection through the expansion of the traditional concept of sovereignty.The emergence of these phenomena has created conditions for humanitarian intervention to break through the collective security mechanism.Although the supporters of humanitarian intervention have never stopped looking for a basis for the legitimacy of the theory,both the humanitarian intervention theory and the “Responsibility to Protect” theory have their own legal obstacles or logical defects that are difficult to overcome.The theory of humanitarian intervention cannot avoid the hegemonic nature of the intervention subject and the national interest consideration of the intervention behavior.The logic flaw of “Responsibility to Protect” lies in its implicit weakening of national sovereignty and unclear provisions on the subject of responsibility of the international community.These root causes make it difficult for humanitarian intervention to fundamentally shake the core position of the collective security mechanism in the contemporary international law system.In addition,the international community should give full play to the institutional advantages of the collective security mechanism represented by the principle of state sovereignty,the principle of non-interference in internal affairs and the principle of prohibition of the use of force when responding to the challenge of humanitarian intervention,and resist illegitimate interference.On the other hand,due to the incompatibility of the decision-making mechanism of the Security Council with the modern international situation,it is difficult for the collective security mechanism to play its due role in the face of the challenge of humanitarian intervention.In the face of the challenges posed by humanitarian intervention,the effective strategy should be to adhere to the current international consensus: insist on the basic view of the limitation of sovereignty and the humanist turn of international law,and guard against hegemonism breaking away from the framework of collective security mechanism.And on this basis,to seek a legitimate way out of humanitarian intervention: The UN charter clearly gives the security council the legitimacy to make necessary intervention on humanitarian grounds and strengthens the supervision of the security council's decision-making mechanism,adhere to the principle of limited use of force in specific actions and improve the specific conditions for the use of force.