To Loose the Bands of Wickedness

Book excerpt: The international community tries to cope with the ever increasing flow of refugees, but remains reluctant to take coercive measures against the governments directly responsible for massive abuses of human rights, still sheltering behind article 2(7) of the UN Charter, which does not "authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state". Should not governments, in the light of actual events, now consider whether the price of non-intervention is too high, not only on humanitarian grounds, but also because of the escalating costs and the acute political and social problems posed by these mass exoduses? Or is the risk of power abuse for political gain too high because state sovereignty is perceived as absolute. The focus of this study is essentially a practical one.