Seeking Accountability for the Unlawful Use of Force
Description
Book Chapter
Mary Ellen O'Connell, The Presumption of Peace: Illegal War, Human Rights, and Humanitarian Law, in Seeking Accountability for the Unlawful Use of Force 526 (Leila Nadya Sadat ed., 2018).
In the search for bold action in the face of serious challenges, it can be overlooked that war is in fact the cause of tragedy, not the solution. Protecting human lives and the natural environment from the ravages of war can best be accomplished by promoting restrictions on force and peaceful resolution of conflict. The contemporary civil wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Congo, Burundi, and else are feeding the flood of migrants. These wars need resolution not escalation through foreign military intervention. It will be argued here that however understandable the calls for greater military force may be, war is rarely the answer. Fostering understanding and respect for law and even expanding restrictions to prohibit civil war hold greater promise. The recent trend toward interpreting the scope of peacetime human rights protections to apply more broadly is an important counterpoint to war-expansion arguments. Expanding human rights follows the plan of the World War II generation to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war through law and moral suasion.