Saddam’s trial puts Western values in the dock

At present, humanitarian intervention is opportunistic and expedient in nature. It’s time for a fundamental global re-think to this approach. Humanitarian intervention should be transformed into a duty upon the world’s nations. Human life, especially when there are thousands at stake, is too important to leave to chance.

If this problem is not expressly addressed now, legal and social commentators are likely to be addressing the same issue into the 22nd century. We should not wait until then. It’s only reasonable to believe that waiting will result in future generations seeking solutions while lamenting the killing of another 170 million or more people by their own government.

Surely one century with 170 million preventable deaths is sufficient reason to seriously consider fundamental reform of the global approach to governments which sponsor killings of their own people.

So when is humanitarian intervention appropriate?

This is not difficult. Humanitarian intervention should be mandatory in cases of large-scale, government-sanctioned killings. The (UN) Security Council should be given the authority and responsibility to muster “coalitions of the willing”, perhaps selected by ballot, to supply the necessary resources.

If it fails in its role, citizens from countries ruled by despots should be conferred automatic citizenship rights to Security Council member nations - nothing like self-interest to stimulate action.

There’s a job already waiting for the Security Council. It should start by sending in troops to Sudan where the government - through its instruments, the Janjaweed militias - is in the process of slaughtering and driving out thousands of members of the Zaghawa, Masalit and Fur tribes in the Dafur region.

Since February 2003, more than 200,000 people have been killed and more than two million forced to flee their homes. The United Nations, naturally, has been furiously debating whether this constitutes genocide - the terminology is, of course, of “vital” importance (there is not much else to stress about in six-star accommodation).

Situations like this will, no doubt, continue to arise until humanitarian intervention is transformed from an expedient accident to a categorical imperative. Unless this occurs, the rest of the world should also stand in the dock when the next dictator happens to find himself in court.