ABSTRACT
In accordance with modern international law everyone is entitled to certain basic human rights under UN conventions, regional treaties, and bilateral agreements. In the Middle Ages the situation became somewhat different, to a certain degree because Christianity emphasized the inherent dignity and equality before God of all human beings. Supporting the legitimacy of intervention in the name of "humanism," quite a few scholars held that the right to "humanitarian" intervention emerges as the result of the decision of a group of states rather than on a unilateral basis. Humanitarian intervention involving the use of force in the internal affairs of other peoples in the name of "humane" purposes was extensively employed in international relations in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Human rights violations may occur on a massive scale or in isolated incidents. States must respond to both types of violations.
