Publication

This report analyzes the so-called "right of humanitarian intervention". It studies the question of when, if ever, it is appropriate for states to take coercive military action against other states, for the purpose of protecting people at risk in those states. The commission was asked to wrestle with the whole range of legal, moral, operational, and political questions involved in such a debate, and to consult the widest possible range of opinion around the world, in order to produce a report that would help the Secretary-General and the UN to find common ground on the issue. The report's central theme is "The Responsibility to Protect", the idea that sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe, but that when they are unwilling or unable to do so, that responsibility must be borne by the broader community of states.