Human rights and international security

Document from the year 2008 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, , language: English, abstract: With the advent of Human Rights in international law, several core ideas of the traditional system of international law have been challenged, such as the principle of non-interference and state sovereignty, as well as the prohibition of the use of force, especially with the decision that massive human rights violations can form a threat to international peace and security to which the UN Security Council can respond with measures according to Chapter VII of the UN Charter. While at first sight a change of paradigm in international law, or in any legal system, is not negative per se, the rules which collide with a truly effective and universal protection of HR through international law are the very rules which form the foundation for international peace and security, the primary reason for the existence of international law. While international peace and security require the stability provided by the Westphalian system, they can at the same time be endangered by massive violations of human rights. On the other hand can Human Rights only be enjoyed in times of peace while the Westphalian system can limit the effective and universal enforcement of Human Rights in cases in which the UN Security Council has failed to take action under Chapter VII. This short book is an attempt at reconciling these needs which are at times direct against each other, at times interlinked ones with a special focus on massive violations of human rights which are not being addressed effectively by the UN Security Council. To this end, we will look at the Human Rights dimensions of international peace and security outlined above before we come to the core issue of the paper, the legality of the use of force for the protection of Human Rights in cases in which the UN Security Council fails to act, or, in other words, the question of in how far the need for universal respect for human rights can overrun the need for peace, given the links between both factors indicated above.

Docent Dr. Stefan Kirchner, Assessor jur., MJI is Associate Professor for Arctic Law at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland, and Adjunct Professor of Fundamental and Human Rights at the same university. His work focuses on the crossroads of human rights, the environment, shared areas, in particular the oceans and outer space, and international business and trade. Prior to joining the Arctic Governance Research Group at the Arctic Centre he taught public law, international law and civil rights as Visiting Professor for Transitional Justice at the University of Turin (Italy), University Lecturer and Associate Professor for Fundamental and Human Rights, with a Special Focus on Indigenous Rights, at the Faculty of Law of the University of Lapland in Rovaniemi (Finland), Assistant Professor for International Law and Associate Professor for the Law of the Sea at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas (Lithuania), scientific employee in the Department of Public Law of the Faculty of Law of Georg-August-University in Göttingen (Germany), and Visiting Lecturer at the Institute of International Relations at Tars Shevchenko National University in Kyiv (Ukraine) and at the Faculty of Law Justus-Liebig-University in Giessen (Germany). Formerly a practising lawyer (Rechtsanwalt) in Germany for over a decade, he has worked on international trade law, corporate law, the law of the sea and human rights law, including cases at the German Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht), the German Federal Supreme Court (Bundesgerichtshof), the German Federal Administrative Court (Bundesverwaltungsgericht) and the European Court of Human Rights. In addition, he served as legal agent for Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency, working on international shipping law, oil pollution and seafarer training issues. Dr. Kirchner is active in a number of professional organizations and is a regular reviewer for a number of academic publishing houses and academic journals, a member of editorial boards for several international academic journals and has written over one hundred academic articles and book chapters. He has been an evaluator of research projects for the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters. Prior to his legal career he worked as a freelance journalist in Germany, as an emergency medical technician (Rettungssanitäter) for the German Red Cross and as a factory worker for a company producing transformers.