Browsing by Subject "The United Nations"

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Open Access
The United Nations and Rwanda : a case study in humanitarian intervention
(2001) Kurtuluş, Yıldız Tuğba
In 1994 Rwandan genocide approximately 1 million people were killed in three months. This genocide took place in the presence of the United Nations forces deployed there. In spite of the signals of the coming genocide, international community could not do much to prevent or stop this genocide. Therefore it was a “failure”. This study aims to identify the principal political and strategic constraints explaining the failure of the UN and international community as a whole to address the genocide in Rwanda. It examines the events that led to UN intervention and describes UN action. It also aims at determining the position of Rwanda case in the evolution of the doctrine and practice of humanitarian intervention. This study asks questions like “How can we define the UN intervention in Rwanda?”, “How does the Rwanda case reveal the difficulties the UN face with, in terms of humanitarian intervention?”, “What are the reasons for this failure?” and “What lessons should be taken from the experience?”. It concludes that in the absence of a general doctrine guiding humanitarian intervention, and a solid mechanism capable of taking action when necessary, the decision on whether or not to intervene will be caught up in politics. Rwanda experience suggests that intervention is most likely where perceived national and ethical interests converge, less so when they conflict.
Open Access
United Nations intervention in Darfur : a case study
(2010) Akgün, Filiz
The crisis in Darfur started in February 2003 as an insurgency movement against the Sudanese government in Khartoum. The response of the ruling party to the uprising became devastating and paved the way to the extreme level of humanitarian suffering. The United Nations has been criticized widely due to its late, reluctant and ineffective response to this humanitarian crisis. This thesis aims to analyze the peace operation in Darfur within the context of the UN interventions in intrastate conflicts. The attitude of the UN in the Darfur crisis is interesting to examine as the case took place in the intersection of two opposite processes. On the one hand, there were significant attempts to regulate the norm of humanitarian intervention and to increase the effectiveness of peace operations. On the other hand, the impact of 9/11 attacks was radically changing the agenda of the world politics. This study tries to assess the intervention on the basis of four questions: How can the basic principles of peacekeeping be applied to that case? Has the AU/UN hybrid operation in Darfur succeeded? What were the reasons for the UN to respond lately and reluctantly in Darfur? How can the case be evaluated within the context of humanitarian interventions? In the final analysis, this thesis argues that despite the fact that significant normative progress has been achieved in rhetoric especially in notion of sacrificing state sovereignty for the sake of human security, the practice is still shaped by the political calculations of member states.