The United Nations General Assembly has begun debate on a proposal to adopt the so-called Responsibility to Protect, which would allow nations to use force to prevent genocide and other crimes against vulnerable populations. In remarks before the assembly, former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans said the doctrine’s acceptance would help prevent genocide.

Gareth Evans: “The core theme is not intervention but protection. Look at each issue as it arises from the perspective of the victims, the men being killed or about to be killed, the women being or about to be raped, the children dying or about to die of starvation. Look at the responsibility in question as being, above all, a responsibility to prevent.”

Critics of Responsibility to Protect have argued against expanding the grounds for using force beyond those authorized by the UN Charter, which backs military action only in cases of self-defense or under Security Council approval. UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann of Nicaragua said he fears the doctrine could be selectively used to justify Western military action against weaker states.

UN General Assembly President Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann: “Recent and painful memories related to the legacy of colonialism give developing countries strong reasons to fear that laudable motives can end up being misused, once more, to justify arbitrary and selective interventions against the weakest states.”

Also speaking critically of the proposal, the linguist and political analyst Noam Chomsky gave the example of US-backed mass killings in Iraq and Gaza to illustrate the political uses of humanitarian intervention.

Noam Chomsky: “There was, of course, no thought of applying the principle to the Iraq sanctions administered by the Security Council, condemned as genocidal by the two directors of the Oil-for-Food program, the respected international diplomats Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck, both of whom resigned because of their genocidal character. There’s no thought today of protection of the people of Gaza; that’s another UN responsibility.”