ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is to criticize the idea of 'humanitarian intervention' as a justification for war. Interference in the affairs of other states in the name of human rights can therefore, in principle, be justified. Such wars are themselves likely to violate human rights, they are not an effective way of promoting human rights, and they undermine the possibility of an international order. On the other hand, the account which the author has offered so far already identifies a clear problem with appealing to human rights to justify intervention. The author have emphasised that ascriptions of human rights, though stipulative, are not just arbitrary. He argues first that war, and especially modern methods of warfare, are activities singularly ill-suited to the upholding of human rights. In practice, as the people know, wars purportedly fought to uphold human rights may well involve civilian casualties on a large scale.
