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Ethical Decision making in International Relations
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APPLYING STRATEGIES OF ETHICAL DECISION MAKING IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Introduction
The question of when is it appropriate for one state or group of states to take coercive and in particular military action against another state on the basis of protecting the people whose human rights are gravely violated or is threatened in that state is central to the issue of “intervention vs sovereignty”. Central to this question is the issue of whether the international community has the moral duty to intervene in a sovereign state to end or prevent immense human rights violations, such as in Nazi Germany under Hitler, Kosovo, Georgia, Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan.
Koffi Anan, former Secretary of the United Nations once said “We must all recognize that …we have failed in our response to the agony of Rwanda, and thus have acquiesced in the continued loss of human life. Our readiness and capacity for action has been demonstrated to be inadequate at best and deplorable at worst, owing to the absence of the collective political will.” UN and Rwanda 1993 – 1996, p 291.
This statement by the former Head of the UN Secretariat illustrates the mammoth task of intervention in a sovereign state on the humanitarian grounds by other states or the by the United Nations. The international community recognizes the following guidelines in international relations amongst states, as inspired by the Peace of Westphalia 1648
1. The principle of the sovereignty of states and the fundamental right of political self determination
2. The principle of legal equality between states
3. The principle of non-interference of one state in the internal affairs of another state

It is also argued that the protection of the citizens of a territory is the principal role of the state, in as much as universal rights are concern, however if states fail to do protect their own citizens or is unwilling to do so or is the primary perpetrator of crimes against humanity, than is the international community not duty bound to intervene and protect human life?
In 2003 the Sudanese government and the militia Janjaweed and other Sudan Liberation Movement rebel factions which are estimated to be around 13 such as Minni Minnawi's faction which signed the 2006 peace deal, Abdul Wahid Mohammad Ahmed al-Nur's faction which rejected the peace deal, Justice and Equality Movement of Khalil Ibrahim’s which is one of the first rebel groups who also have rejected the deal and the infamous rebel negotiator, Suleiman Jamous the SLM Unity led Abdallah Yehia, UFLD which recently formed umbrella group including several key SLM commanders and other breakaway SLM commanders such as Mahjoub Hussein, Jar el-Neby and Suleiman Marajan.
The conflict began in the dry, infertile and impecunious region of Sudan early in 2003 after the rebel groups began attacking government targets, saying the region was being neglected by the government in Khartoum. The main position of the rebels was that the government is oppressing southern black Africans in favour of northern Arabs.
Darfur, which means land of the Fur, has faced many years of tension over land and grazing rights between the mostly nomadic Arabs, and farmers from the Fur, Massaleet and Zagawa communities. Although it seems that the war has been started as a struggle for scarce resources it has been fuelled by tribal and ethnic conflicts which has been there for many years. In the process the government has been accused for sponsoring the Janjaweed militia which is the northern Arabs to ethnically cleanse the black Africans which rebel against the government. The Government and President Omar al – Bashir is indicted by the International Criminal Court on the basis that he has
"Masterminded and implemented a plan to destroy in substantial part the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa groups, on account of their ethnicity. The argue that his motives were largely political and that his alibi was a counterinsurgency to the rebel attacks but the ICC says that his intent was genocide." During this conflict millions have been displaced from their houses, hundreds of thousands has been killed, hacked to death, tortured, rape a terrible genocidal madness, the ultimate crime against humanity if not holocaust has taken over Sudan, Darfur region and just like in Rwanda on 6 April 1994 the international community is challenge with the question of intervention or no-intervention vs state sovereignty.
This task will examine that central question based on the article by Helen Scanlon titled “Darfur Highlights Dilemma of Intervention versus Sovereignty” in the Sunday Independent, 17 June 2007.
Respect for sovereign rights of state remains central to relations between states since its development at Westphalia in 1648. The Westphalian sovereingty is the concept of nation states based on territoriality and the exclusion of other actors in international relations from domestic governance structures. In 1648 the Westphalia system has evolved with the signing of the Peace of Westphalia when nations recognized the sovereignty of each other and given much more importance to the nation state over the individual citizens or rulers.
The signing of the Peace has brought about an end to the interference in the domestic affairs of the nation states by the supra or more powerful nations because the Westphalia system of 1648 recognized the principles earlier stated in this work as guiding international relations.
The Treaty that was signed and become the Westphalia Peace of 1648 by the major European states has set the stage for international interaction amongst states as it outline the norms and expected behaviors amongst states, the most critical in this analysis of Sudan is the principle of state sovereignty.(Mcgowan, P et al , 2006)
In my view state sovereignty implies state responsibility of protection towards its own citizens, therefore where the people are immensely affected by an internal war, repression, insurgency and state failure to protect the citizens or unwillingness to protect them such as in Sudan puts squarely the responsibility of protecting those citizens with the international community.
But many Observers, scholars of Law, International Relations and Politics throughout the literature disagree on the role of the international community, especially around issues of what can the international community do, does it have a moral duty to do so, what role should the UN play and how can the political barriers of intervention be overcome and how should such atrocities against humans be prevented in the future?
All of the above questions are ethical questions around the central theme of Humanitarian intervention and several ethical theories are postulated to address this theme amongst others, Natural law, International law, Utilitarianism, Social contractarianism, Communitarianism, Legal positivism.
In this work I will interrogate the rules based and consequential strategies of ethical decision making in addressing this central theme of ethics in International Relations.
According to the rules based strategies the central question is whether it is ethical that other states intervene in a sovereign state such as in the Darfur region of Sudan in order to protect the civilian population from genocide? The answer is that the responsibility of the international community to protect lies in the duty inherent in the concept of sovereignty, it is found in the responsibility of the UN Security Council, under Article 24 of the UN Charter, Afican Union constitutive Act and in other declarations on human rights, covenants and treaties and international humanitarian law and national law.
Yes it is ethical for the international community under the United Nations banner to intervene in Sudan, if one has to consider the broader definition of what ethics is. Ethics refers to well based standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues
This world has observe over many years how human beings are exterminated by powerful states and leaders, we have seen the Nazi German holocaust of the Jews, the Yogoslavian “Butcher of the Balkans” Milosevic, Rwanda Hutu and Tutsi genocide and many xenophobic attacks and tribal and ethnical cleansing as happens in Sudan.
The responsibility to protect as outline above by international community denotes responsibility to act in situations of grave and compelling situations of human need. The responsibility of the sovereign state to protect or unwillingness to protect its own citizens or failure to do so warrants interventionary measures from the broader body of states, such intervention may be political, economical and judicial and military intervention should be the last resort. Because the continuation of such atrocities against other human beings is a threat to the international peace and security and in such cases intervention is justifiable as was the case in Haiti in recent years. As per Natural law theorist “our common human nature generates common moral duties” in this case the right of humanitarian intervention. However the benefit of intervention should be greater than the cost, my position as stated here is that any intervention should exclude the use of military force unless such is necessary, for example when SADC approved military intervention in DRC and or when South Africa and Botswana on the request of the Lesotho Prime Minister intervene to prevent anarchy in that state.
Such intervention should be reach through consensus in the global governance systems and powerful states should not use this right to unilaterally use military power against states perceived to be non-cooperative with the interest of them, such was the case in Iraq when the Americans invaded this country on the pre-text of international threat or in the case with Russia invading Georgia, it is morally wrong for a powerful state to bypass the UN Security Council and unilaterally decide that it is their duty and responsibility to act. The deployment of the more powerful and empowered joint UN-AU peace keeping forces (UNAMID) rather should be the option for Sudan.
State intent in intervention is expressed in international law as such this must guide the international community in addressing the ethical question of humanitarian intervention in sovereign states.(Holzgrefe,J.L. Keohane O,R, 2003)
The other school of thought which uses the outcomes based strategy of ethical decision making, tend to argue that actions are bound to have reactions. The central question than perhaps is what are the likely outcomes of intervening in an sovereign state and what precedence’s are we than setting in the system of international communities or actors in the international arena and what drives the intend of the actors.
In the matter of Sudan, humanitarian intervention will produce good outcomes given the context and circumstances, it has been since 2003 and hundreds of thousands of people are misplaced, killed and fled into neighboring countries like Chad.
The crises in the refugee camps are unimaginable and thousands continue to die and the government has not sponsoring violence against its citizen’s. The intervention according to the consequential theorist and its likely outcome might be seen against the stated objective of humanitarian relief to the affected people of Darfur, an end to human suffering. If such objectives are achieved during and after the intervention than the consequential theorist would agree with me that it is just to intervene in Sudan, however outcomes can be different and the cost than higher as is the case in war times humanitarian intervention, but with due recognition given to rules of engagement this could be averted and the objectives can be achieved with minimal cost.
A situation in which we see the return of peace to Sudan, immediate relief to the suffering of Sudanese people. From the outcomes based theories perspective using the deontological approach the rights of the citizen’s of Sudan should be equal to those of the state, as is internationally agreed upon. The international community equally has the institutional obligation in the UN system. The member states are under obligation to protect their value system as spell out in the UN Charter and in that way achieve fairness and justice.
Finally, no matter what perspective we had to use in the analysis of humanitarian intervention in Sudan and what moral judgments we make about it, the bottom line is the ongoing crises of human lives being destroyed without due regard to their rights and there seems to be nobody doing anything about it on the basis of maintain a argument for or against intervention in Sudan in line with international relations. The consequences of non-intervention are much higher and costly than to intervene now and save a nation. Intervention will secure internal political stability and economic growth for Sudan and security and peace in the affected region.
This situation is dangerous and a costly precedent we will set for the generations to come. There should be enough political will to decisively intervention on humanitarian grounds in Sudan, my proposition is to increase the joint UN-AU peace keeping forces from 9000m to 26 000 and suspend the ICC summons and indictments against the President Omar Al-Bashir and continue to pursue and support the efforts of the negotiators in the process and allow China to play a more significant role.


August 18, 2008 | 5:36 AM Comments  0 comments

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SPYL Economic Transformation Convention
Related to country: Namibia

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Im pleased to post thuis commentary to the outcomes of the SPYL economic indaba.

Comments to the Economic Transformation Convention themed “Accelerated job creation, Youth Empowerment and Economic development” held by the SWAPO Youth League, 16 – 17 May 2008, Windhoek.

The SWAPO Party Youth League (SPYL) as the transmission belt of the SWAPO Party which is the ruling party in Namibia has taken a bolt step in addressing and finding solutions to the abhorring socio-economic conditions faced by the many Namibian youth and this, rightfully so, seeing that the majority of the Namibian population is the youth. This step is more welcome in the light of the nearing 2009 national and presidential elections where a majority of “born free youth” will be voting for the first time ever in their lives.

This makes it more interesting and appropriate that the ruling party youth wing had gathered before the parliament retreat to the coast possibly with the view to influence the deliberations there and make their well deserved contributions in the policies of our country. SWAPO Youth League no doubt is the best placed youth structure to effect positive change to the government as the authentic voice of the Namibian youth which make up the best part of the SWAPO electorate. This said, I want to briefly comment on the economic wisdom of the SPYL as contained in the “Convention Declaration” which by now is a public document:

The SPYL convention clearly gives indications to government on the need for sustainable and equitable economic development. The long range of topical issues contained in the ‘convention declaration’ such as; Accelerated youth employment, Youth entrepreneurship development, Micro and Tax credits for youth business, Equitable redistribution of economic resources and subsequent beneficiation from this resources by the youth, the HIV / AIDS situation amongst the youth, Industrial policy issues and many others is an indication that the SPYL has realize that there is a need for a consensus within SWAPO on economic growth and the path to be taken in the realization of those aspirations in terms of managing public policies.

Namibian youth make up roughly around 60% of the Namibian population, which translates into the majority of the voting masses for SWAPO and it will only make sense if the government listens to the demands of the youth and speedily address the aspirations of the youth. SWAPO government in many instances has proven itself to be able to do just that, because as a government of the people it has long realize that for development policies to be sustainable they should be seen to be supportive of social and economic progress for as many people as possible which the SWAPO government serve. For this reason inclusive approaches to policy design and consultation among stakeholders is necessary because it provides the necessary stability for economic growth. SPYL leadership needs to be commented again for this foresight.

The position of the SPYL in terms of restructuring the current neo liberal capitalist economic system which in many circles are viewed to be inhumane and not so helpful to the plight of the previously disadvantage majority of the Namibian population needs to be supported, mostly because the Washington consensus did not take into account the post colonial African economic structures in the advent of the globalization drive.

The Namibian economy is unique given the pre independence background we have had in our country and any growth strategy aimed at sustainable and equitable economic growth must take those elements in cognizance. Namibian economy has been characterized by low growth and investment and high unemployment (reported to be above 30%) and highest amongst the youth and in rural areas. Economic policies which are deregulatory, about liberalization of trade, encourage privatization and fiscal restrain do not stimulate equitable growth and create jobs thus a more interventionist strategy from the government must be applied as called for by the SPYL in the ‘Economic transformation’ convention which centered around 3 main themes of ;
1. The relationship between growth and redistribution,
2. Relevance of structural factors in underdevelopment
3. The role of the market and state
Government must do more to support the call for restructuring the economy for more equitable growth, the current system has deepen inequality and poverty amongst our youth and direct intervention aimed at assisting the poor through the allocation of resources for the development of entrepreneurs amongst youth, creation of economic environment and opportunities which encourages the absorption of more labour is vital.

The provision of micro credit schemes to young entrepreneurs, broadening the ownership of economic resources, acceleration of job creation, investment in education and skills development of youth should be our government’s priorities.

Recently at the launch of the Karas regional youth expo the Prime Minister has confirm that the government is in the process of developing the youth development fund and with the current consensus on ETSIP the Namibian youth can be sure that the government is addressing their needs. Further the ratification of the African Youth Charter by the Parliament and the completion of the work on the National Youth bill are encouraging since most of the issues resolved upon by the convention are address in those instruments, the National Youth bill more specifically if pass by the parliament will empower the youth more, since the demanded resources and level of engagement can be meet, albeit, on a more efficient basis through the envisaged institutions.

In my view it is equally also important to re-evaluate and if need be, transform the current institutions through which youth development is address by the government, for many programs and policies such as the envisaged, Youth incubation centers, Youth innovation, entrepreneurship and development fund, Micro credit scheme, Accelerated youth employment can be implemented through more empowered public institutions which should be a far better cry from the current National Youth Council, Ministry of Youth, Development Bank of Namibia, National Youth Service just to mention a few. Further reforms in the state procurement system in the Ministry of finance to preferentially procure from 35% of BEE companies must be speed up and preference to youth owned companies must be given.

Similarly the same should happen in the private sector where financial institutions and others are coming up with support and financing strategies for youth enterprises but their actions are not well coordinated and thus sporadic, this state of affairs defeats the purpose.
Growth strategies can not succeed without a commitment to equality of opportunity, especially in the current economic shocks of high inflation, rising interest rates, food prices, fuel prices and unemployment. In Namibia growth will not come as a miracle overnight but is imperative on the need for consensus on economic growth, the right macro and micro economic tools, correct product market, labour market and industrial policies which address economic constraints face by our country.

I am confident that the Namibian government is on the right track, we have come of age and the acceptance that we need a consensus on growth will create a platform for engagement amongst youth, scholars and public opinion leaders, where government will continue to provide leadership, vision and focus, because our government is credible, capable and committed.
To the SPYL let us maintain the momentum to achieve our objectives of, to be the transmitting belt of the SWAPO PARTY, to advance, articulate, defend and realize a sensible and pragmatic youth and national agenda.

August 4, 2008 | 6:51 AM Comments  0 comments

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