PRIO and the French Cultural Centre are pleased to present a seminar with Bernard Kouchner, co-founder of the Medecins sans frontieres. The focus of the seminar will be the duty of humanitarian intervention.The seminar will be in French, with simultaneous translation into Norwegian. If you want to take part in this seminar, please register with seminar@prio.no
“This is the revolutionary idea: It is human rights and not states that rule the world. Clearly, all states have signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, all states are supposed to renounced torture and the oppression of minorities. And we know very well that for half of them, perhaps more, they do not adhere to that solemn paragraph. In order to gradually force them to do so, the international community must intervene, perhaps even with force. This is the right to intervene.” Bernard Kouchner defends the duty to intervene through his humanitarian actions and his political engagement. In his opinion states have a more obligation to interrupt national sovereignty of other nations in order to defend human rights. The right to intervene, the juridical application of the duty to intervene, was put in place in Kosovo by the UN in 1999. Some see in it the trace of a new policy of intervention.
