Use of Force in Humanitarian Crises: Addressing the Limitations of U.N. Security Council Authorization

The original 2001 United Nations (UN) codification of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) granted the UN Security Council exclusive control over authorizing use of force in sovereign states. Unfortunately, as demonstrated over the past 20 years, the need for humanitarian intervention has not changed and the use of force in the name of humanitarian intervention has not always occurred even when the need for such intervention was dire. When the UN Security Council is deadlocked, and a humanitarian crisis is at hand, it is necessary to have a means of using low-intensity military force to prevent mass atrocity crimes. In this article, we discuss the need for a framework for non-UN authorized military force in the name of humanitarian intervention. Expanding on previous work, we set forth a seven-point framework for countries to follow if they wish to justifiably use military force in humanitarian crises without UN authorization