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HUMANITARIAN LAW
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THE; UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP); UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION (UNESCO); UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES (UNHCR); WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME (WFP); WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO). HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION. International law prohibits “interventions” by any state within the territory of another without that state’s consent, including in cases of internal wars. These prohibitions, which are a corollary of the principle of the sovereign equality of states are reaffirmed in the Charter of the United Nations as part of its general prohibition of the use of force (subject only to a right of individual and collective self-defense). Since the end of the Cold War, the Security Council has authorized military interventions for humanitarian purposes in Iraq, Somalia, Haiti, and Timor-Leste, among other cases, on the grounds that such actions were justified in situations of internal conflict or war because they were accompanied by war crimes, massive human rights violations and other crimes against humanity that threatened peace and security and, therefore, fell within the jurisdiction and were the responsibility of the council under Chapter VI and VII of the UN Charter. The argument that humanitarian intervention is permissible if authorized by the Security Council has raised further questions about the legality of such actions as the collective intervention in Kosovo led by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO),which was undertaken without explicit Security Council approval. See also HIGHLEVEL PANEL ON THREATS, CHALLENGES, AND CHANGE (HLP); INDEPENDENT INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON KOSOVO; INDEPENDENT WORKING GROUP ON THE FUTURE OF THE UNITED NATIONS; INTERNATIONAL COMMISSION ON INTERVENTION AND STATE SOVEREIGNTY; REFORM, UNITED NATIONS; SOVEREIGNTY. HUMANITARIAN LAW. Body of rules in international law that, in times of international armed conflicts, seek to protect persons who are not or no longer are taking part in hostilities and restrict the methods of warfare employed. International humanitarian law is rooted in the “law of armed conflict,” which developed progressively since