English Studies

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

Mapping Environmental Diplomacy: An introduction

Dr. Leila Nicolas' Speech at The Grace School of Applied Diplomacy at DePaul University Conference entitled Environmental Diplomacy: Exploring Transprofessional Contributions to Global Survival,  Oct 13-15, 2021.


Introduction

Good morning! It is afternoon here in Lebanon.

I will use our Lebanese greeting word, which can be used at any time during the day and night; Marhaba. 

Thank you for inviting me to this important conference. It is an honor to be a speaker in this session and participate in the following sessions.

When I was about to write my book "effective forms of environmental diplomacy," I was mainly concerned about the idea that the root causes of future conflicts in the world will be mainly environmental.

As a researcher and an activist in the Middle East, that idea gets me along with all the geopolitical conflicts in the region. I thought we would need better conflict resolution strategies, more focused and effective environmental diplomacy to preserve peace and security on the global, regional, and national levels.

Trying to map the issue of environmental diplomacy, I will address three main questions:

1- Why Environmental diplomacy?

2- Where are we now?  

3- How to move forward?

 

Why Environmental diplomacy?

On the state level, diplomacy in its early traditional sense focused only on 'high politics,' i.e., national security, defense, and sovereignty. It did not weigh what was considered 'low politics,' i.e., social, cultural, and environmental issues considered peripheral. 

Despite starting to negotiate environmental treaties in the mid-nineteenth century, it was not until states began to view the environment as a threat to security that they began to give weight to environmental diplomacy.

 

What causes an environmental conflict?

First narrative: Natural Resource Scarcity 

Instability can be caused by a decrease in supply and demand, besides the people's inability to access key resources.

2nd narrative: Population Growth

In the presence of poor economic performance and lack of adequate infrastructure, population growth may cause conflict and instability.

In addition to the political, economic, and social problems, some authors argue that the root cause of the Arab spring was the youth bulb. 

3rd narrative: Human Migration

Once people migrate due to a lack of resources and inability to survive, conflicts will arise. Then, group-identity issues could lead to violence within migrant and host societies, and possible conflicts may arise over host resources.

We can refer to the tensions in Lebanon between the Syrian refugees and the host communities, especially in Akkar and Bekaa, where resources are scarce and where people in local communities are under poverty lines like their new guests.

4th narrative: Globalisation

This narrative also relates to the concept of food security, where globalization has allowed for mass production and distribution, often at the expense of the environment.

5th narrative: Unequal Resource Distribution

When communities experience livelihood insecurity due to environmental degradation, the disadvantaged members of society will suffer the most, and as a result, violence will likely emerge. 

This is the case in most third-world countries. 

Empirical case:

Drawing one of the strongest links between environment and conflict, we can refer to the Syrian civil war:

- An extreme drought in Syria between 2006 and 2009 (which was most likely due to climate change) was one factor in the violent uprising in 2011. 

- Iraqi migration and influx of refugees to Syria, in addition, environmental migration from rural areas to the cities, which led to high unemployment rates, pressure on infrastructure, and resources scarcity, are other factors.

- Population growth, unequal resource distribution, lack of opportunities, and inability to access resources due to corruption, clientelism, and dictatorship, were also leading factors.

Therefore, Environmental Diplomacy should be seen as a Peacebuilding Tool.

Where are we now?

Since the end of the Cold War, diplomacy has witnessed a huge transformation. The role of technology and media changed the image of a diplomat. It reinforced "public diplomacy," in addition to the emersion of new non-state actors such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and even multinational corporations. 

'Multilateral diplomacy' pressed by public opinion pushed the environmental agenda forward. 

And now, 'Environmental diplomacy' falls under two categories: 

1. Conventions regulating natural resources 

2. Conventions regulating pollution. 

 

On the bright side 

1- Progress in IEL and its principles

On the bright side of the international Environmental agenda, we notice the great leap in the development of international Environmental Law and the evolution of generally accepted principles (mainly found in the "Stockholm Declaration" and "Rio Declaration").

1.    A Sovereign Shall Do No Harm

2.    The Duty to Prevent

3.    The Principle of Cooperation

4.    The Principle of Sustainable Development

5.    The Precautionary Principle

6.    The 'Polluter Pays' principle

7.    The principle of Common but Differentiated Responsibility

 

2- Multilateralism pushed the environmental agenda forward

More than ever, environmental non-governmental organizations play an important role locally and internationally in addressing different environmental issues. Since the 1980s, these organizations have increasingly influenced environmental policy and discourse globally.

The NGOs' widespread influence highlights the importance of their advocacy plans and their role in adopting and implementing environmental projects.

Engaging in 'multilateral diplomacy' helped facilitate cooperation and coordination between different stakeholders at international and national levels and between civil society, public and private sectors.

3- Decentralization led to better governance

For the last few decades, decision-making powers have been decentralized, shifting from governments towards more participation of local institutions and NGOs. In the environmental governance realm, this power shift helped promote the fundamental principles of environmental governance and enhanced effectiveness. 

4- Environment became an essential part of decision-making levels

The environment has become part of every level of decision-making processes, which results from the modern understanding that cities and communities and economic, social, and political life are all subsets of the environment. All people belong to the ecosystem in which they thrive.

5- Environment is a part of policy priority areas

States' policies within environmental governance tend to emphasize several aspects of environmental policy. The most notable policy priorities are the effect of the environment on the quality of life, climate change, ecosystem degradation, nature and biodiversity, natural resources, and waste management.

Challenges and dilemmas 

1- State's national interests

States' territorial boundaries rarely reflect natural boundaries, so national industries and consumption devastate resources and generate pollution causing environmental problems beyond the state. 

Even though progress has been made in environmental preservation, the problem lies in the states' national interests, which affect their compliance with environmental laws and principles. 

2- Economic growth vs. environmental sustainability 

The economy and environment are interconnected. Environmental diplomacy will not succeed without considering economic interests. Besides, economic diplomacy will not be sustainable unless it addresses environmental issues. However, this relationship caused asymmetrical perceptions and differences in interests and conceptualization between the Global South and the Global North. 

While most of the sustainability discourses in industrialized countries refer to environmental issues, developing countries are still involved with economic and social problems such as poverty, social injustice, and lack of development.

3- Populism 

The rise of populism (esp. right-wing populism) in the world was accompanied by the spread of "conspiracy theories" and the rise of "climate change denial" theories. 

This coincided with lobbying against "green policies." From 1989 onwards, industry-funded organizations sought to spread doubt among the public about global warming in a strategy already developed by the tobacco industry. 

As a result, the public discourse shifted from the "science and data of climate change" to a discussion of politics and the surrounding controversy. The scientific skepticism developed to denial, then to a hoax or conspiracy theory.

4- Weak negotiators: division at home

Driven by voters' interests, many politicians and world leaders are still reluctant to consider the environment as essential to "high politics" or consider the environment a national security issue.

Usually, internal conflicts over economic versus environmental policies cause a disturbance in the state's negotiating power and weaken it, giving opposing parties an advantage, sometimes for the benefit of anti-environment agendas.

5- Coalition-building: Double-edged sword

Informal diplomacy has altered the way of conducting international negotiations, especially on the environment. Despite not having an official status, coalitions between states and /or NGOs facilitated coordination, advocacy and led to successful environmental negotiations. Coalition-building is a form of 'associative diplomacy" that increases the group members' bargaining strength when voting and increasing lobbying power. 

This coalition-building has proved to advance the environmental treaties and agenda; however, an environmental coalition may only be as strong as its weakest link. Each member will have different levels of resources and experience, so states or organizations that provide a lot of resources and powerful leadership can lead the coalition to serve their own interest.

6- NGO diplomacy: the Astroturf!

NGOs are independent of government institutions, but they usually rely on funds to carry on their missions.

Some NGOs receive millions of dollars funds from states. This may raise some questions about their level of independence and legitimacy. As Transparency International points out, "NGO status risks to become a mere vehicle used by special interest groups to avoid control mechanisms." Others have raised the problem of the Astroturf, which is the "process by which firms create mobilizations that take the form of an NGO, resemble an NGO but whose existence is, in fact, provided by private funds, for commercial purposes."

 

How to move forward? 

1- Train expert diplomats

Today, in a complex interdependent world, diplomacy is facing many challenges that require better practices. It must realize this urgency "to develop or perish."

The earlier developments changed its character and the number of players competing with traditional diplomats. Today, it is essential to move towards more professionalism, to have "expert diplomats."

Expert diplomats are "professionals with advanced scientific training and are authorized to make politically or legally binding decisions."

2- interdisciplinary training

Building a team of expert diplomats and negotiators from various backgrounds helps facilitate conflict resolution strategies by thinking out of the box and adding extensive new knowledge and skills to the already known ones. 

What is needed is a consistent interdisciplinary training program for diplomats that provides them with extensive knowledge and position at the same time to reinforce their expertise in scientific fields. 

Here, I suggest the training should go both ways:

- Providing scientific knowledge to political negotiators and diplomats.

- Provide political knowledge and negotiation skills to scientific experts.

 

3- Construct Scientific –Political Negotiators

 The notion of scientific expertise should not omit the political nature of international negotiations. 

In other words, governments should train their expert diplomats to act upon their scientific knowledge and their political and diplomatic understanding. 

What is needed is not just using technical and scientific experts to work beside the political negotiators but also to empower environmental expert diplomats and train them to actively engage in all phases of the negotiations. 

4- Build an "Environmental Diplomat" career

The urgency of protecting the environment pushes us to establish an "environmental diplomat" as a 'career.'

This career should be linked to social and political construction in which the diplomatic factor is not replaced, but it complements the work of other diplomatic agents. 

An environmental diplomat should speak with an expert and a political voice at once.

They should approach any environmental issue with a globalist perception. 

In traditional diplomacy, diplomats are trained to incline towards the national interest of their states. However, environmental diplomats should protect their state's national interest and look beyond it to foresee environmental topics as convergent issues that touch the whole universe and affect all nations. 

Conclusion

On a final general note, I urge scholars and practitioners in the field of diplomacy, international relations, and political sciences to move beyond the traditional perceptions and understanding of their fields. 

More than ever, the environment is becoming an essential question in various fields:

- At the global level, nature is becoming the source of both cooperation and conflict, which imposes a new vision for the future of diplomacy.

- States are more aware of the new challenges caused by environmental degradation on national, regional, and global levels.

- Environment is becoming the main issue for voters' choices in elections. Politicians are more to offer "green" policies and promises in their programs.

- Environment has become one of the main sources of economic power nationally and globally. States are looking for more investments in a green economy and foresee solutions for their unemployment problems.

- International relations are moving away from traditional concepts of security and conflicts and forecasting that the main root causes of future conflicts will be environmental. 


For English studies and articles_ refer to my English Blog:
http://www.leilanicolasr.com/

selected papers:


Women in Arab media: present but not heard

Leila Nicolas Rahbani

Prepared for Presentation at the Stanford University- California

February 16, 2010

Introduction

Greater freedom of expression and advance of human rights is affecting all the domains of public life in the Arab world.

Historically, the deficit in women’s empowerment has not been simply a problem of justice and equity, but a major cause of the Arab world’s backwardness. “The utilization of Arab women’s capabilities through political and economic participation remains the lowest in the world in quantitative terms, as evidenced by the very low share of women in parliaments, cabinets, and the work force, and in the trend toward the feminization of unemployment.”(UNDP, 2002: 23).

Nowadays, Arab women are turning to media as a means for their empowerment, as a medium for education that overcomes barriers of distance and time, and as a tool to advance their progress and development in their communities.

The new information technologies have allowed women in Arab world to be seen as equal to men in their ability to discuss, investigate, report and present various issues. They facilitated links and networks for women to interact effectively and share information and resources faster. Meanwhile, the women's movements in the region are increasingly using the electronic media to put forward their advocacy and build solidarity.

No doubt, rapid growth of technology enhanced the presence of women in the Arab media; however, the question raised is not whether the increased presence of women in Arab media has led to an increase in the availability and display of information about women before the public opinion. Instead, the question is whether it has contributed to a qualitative change in women's political and social status in the region.

This paper is going to examine whether Arab women are gaining “role” as they increased their “presence” in Arab media.

I- Dramatic changes shifted Arab media

The emergence of a global telecommunications revolution in the 1980s, particularly in satellite television, brought dramatic changes to the Arab world, perhaps more than to any other region in the Globe.

Witnessing the impact of CNN's international coverage of the 1991 Gulf War, which made it a perfect “television war” (Al-Emad & Fahmy, 2008: 2), several Arab states realized the strategic value of satellite television during times of conflict. Arab governments saw satellite news as the ideal vehicle for extending influence beyond their own borders, so many began launching their own national satellite TV networks, and one of these was the prince of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa who launched Al-Jazeera.

Basically, the creation of Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel in Qatar in 1996 was a qualitative breakthrough in the sphere of new cross-border Arab media. Specialized in news and current affairs 24-hours, Al-Jazeera broke the routine of the satellite channels set up by governments and private Saudi and Lebanese entrepreneurs. It was a real revolution in the Arab world (El-Nawawy and Iskandar, 2003: 7), or as Hugh Miles describes it “A seed planted in the desert” (Miles, 2006: 7).  Al Jazeera, whose slogan was "the opinion and the counter-opinion," surprised Arab governments and audiences by broadcasting uninhibited political discussions and debates and breaking many taboos (Rushing, 15).

As for women issues, Al Jazeera's contribution was “towards rectifying the women's empowerment deficit"(Sakr, Zayani (ed.), 2005: 127-150). Also, it broke ground with the launching of a discussion program geared specifically towards women named “For Women Only”. Distinguished, educated women from all over the Arab world come to express their points of view regarding critical social, political, scientific and environmental issues. The show was taken off the air without reasonable explanations in June 2005 after it had run for only three years.

Another popular program geared for women was “Every woman” launched on Al Jazeera International, in November 2006. It uncovered the stories that women from different educational and racial backgrounds want to share with viewers around the world. The show tackles various subjects like religion, society, sex, education and arts, all from women’s perspectives, and has been granted a prestigious prize, from the Association of International Broadcasting.

Nowadays, there are many specialized Arab TV stations for women, but just covering issues of fashion, food, diets etc. and in June 2009, there was a launching for a new Arab women Channel “EVE” on Nile sat, that discusses all topics related to Arab women including their role in politics, society, business besides the traditional topics of fashion, cooking etc.

Before Al Jazeera, It was Lebanon who opened “wide doors” to women in media. Lebanese channels hired females to present morning shows, aerobics, and news. LBC and Future, the two Lebanese satellite channels that started in 1996, “used women anchors in low-cut attire in a bid to woo Gulf audiences, who were unaccustomed to seeing women on their own television screens” (Sakr, 2007: 94)

In her book, Sakr quotes from “Najat sharrafeddine” of future TV  that she “remembers a lebanese director telling female presenters that viewers wanted to see them, not listen to them”, and adds “Gebran Tueni, once told one of his reporters on an- nahar that TV works according to “Star” system, empowering women through their beauty.(99)

However, the women dillemma of “Beauty before Brains” is not an exclusive matter of Arab media, however, it is an international phenomenon. “Greta Van Susteren” case is a clear one:

When the well-respected news-show host “Greta Van Susteren” moved from CNN to Fox in early 2002, she did not only had a makeover; she surgically altered her face to appear younger and more "beautiful." When her new show, premiered on the Record, her hair was fashionably cut and she sat behind a table so viewers could see her short skirt and legs.

"Before her surgery, Van Susteren had been an increasingly visible beacon projecting the hope that women had made progress. You believed that she had made it in television because she was so darn smart, clearly the best legal analyst on the air. However, her surgery symbolizes what many analysts have argued for decades: that the way a woman looks is far more important than what she has to say. She has become a painful reminder of women’s inequality... Being smart, smarter, smartest isn’t enough” (Armstrong, 2006). By trying to become just another pretty face, Van Susteren instead became another cultural casualty.

Back to Arab media case, it is worthy to say that whatever the motives behind Arab women recruitment in TV stations in last two decades, Arab female journalists did prove to be equal to men and sometimes more effective and influential:

In a survey of eight Arab countries in August 2004, viewers of both sexes named Khadija bin Qenna of Al-Jazeera and Muntaha al-Ramhi of Al- Arabiya as being among the their five most preferred television anchors (sakr,2007: 95).

Taking the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel in the summer of 2006 as a case study, Lebanese female journalists faced bombs, bullets and missiles surpassing their male colleagues’ coverage. Being first in the scenes, female journalists capitalized on their gender, which afforded them easier access to shelters where mostly women and children huddled to escape Israel’s bombing and enabled them to disseminate images of the unfolding human tragedy.

Many examples of brave Arab female journalists can be given. Some of which faced death, danger and assassination:

a-      Liqaa abd Razzak from Asharqiyya Iraqi station was killed in Iraq in October 2004.

b-      May Chidiac of LBC, was a subject of failed assassination through a car bomb in September 2005. She survived losing her leg and arm.

c-      Atwar Bahjat a brave Iraqi journalist was assassinated with two colleagues while covering the bombing of a religious shrine in Iraq in February 2006.

d-      Layal Najib, 23 years old Lebanese photographer, was killed on the spot when an Israeli missile struck next to the taxi in which she was traveling in south Lebanon during Israeli war against Lebanon in July 2006.

e-      Nancy Al Saba ‘ of “New TV” Lebanese station, seemed to disappear from view one day after Israeli rockets rained down on her location on a building’s rooftop in the southern suburb of Beirut in August 2006. But she was shown days later running from Israeli warplanes flying at low altitude over the same area when she went back to cover the destruction.

f-       Rima Maktabi of “Al Arabiya TV” overcame stereotypes about her earlier career as a TV weather girl and game show host, and embraced the challenge with bravery and determination to accurately disseminate the horrors of the Israeli war against Lebanon 2006.

g-      Najwa Qasim of “Al Arabiya TV” bravely reported the conflict in 2006 even though she was wounded while covering the Allied invasion of Iraq at 2003. She was at Al- Arabiya Baghdad office when it was attacked by a car bomb in October 2004.

However, These Cases cannot be seen in all Arab countries especially in the conservative ones, like Saudi Arabia and Sudan for example:

-          On July 3, 2009, Sudan’s Morality police arrested a female journalist “Loubna al-Hussein” for wearing “trousers”. The fact that she was also wearing a headscarf did not spare her. They publicly humiliated, and then arrested her and twelve or thirteen other women journalists, in a restaurant. The police beat them all, then the court sentenced the women to forty lashes in public for the crime of “indecent clothing” as CNN reported.

Al-Hussein lawyer said that “wearing pants” excuse was a veil and the real reason for the trial of al Hussein was her work for the UN mission, and her reports supporting the Sudanese president's “Al bashir” trial before the International Criminal Court, as she declared to “Shorouq” Tunisian newspaper in September 2009.

Another Sudanese female journalist “Amal Habbani” faced charges of "defaming police” when she wrote an article in support of Hussein in “Ajrass Al-Horreya” (freedom bells) Sudanese newspaper in August 2009.

However, if the trial was a punishment for a woman for wearing pants or for practicing her personal freedom, it reveals the continuing discrimination against women and the severe abuse of human rights in Sudan.

Similar and even more abusive cases can be reported in Saudi Arabia:

  1. In March 2009, news reported that Saudi clerics called on the government to ban women from appearing on television and to prohibit their images in print media, which they called a sign of growing "deviant thought."

In a letter to the Information Minister Abdul Aziz al-Khoja, 35 Islamic clerics also condemned the increase of music and dancing on television, as well as images of women in popular newspapers and magazines that they labeled "obscene." They said that the ministry had permitted the import of "obscene newspapers and magazines that are filled with deviant thought and pictures of beautiful women on its covers and inside." And stressed, “There should be no Saudi woman on television, in any case” (AFP, 24 March 2009).

  1. Not being allowed to drive or attend press conferences are only some of the obstacles that female journalists in Saudi Arabia face on a daily basis. Saudi journalist Amjaad Rida told al-Hayat newspaper, "One day, about ten years ago, I was informed of my promotion to vice editor-in-chief. After receiving the compliments of the colleagues, the news suddenly took another turn. My nomination was frozen, or to use a better term, it evaporated due to the threats of resignation of the male officials at the newspaper if I was to take this position."( Al-Khamri,2008)

In Fact, her story is typical for female journalists in a country where even the women's magazines are run by men.

II-                  Media stereotyping Arab women

It is important to note that women are shown as sex objects by media all over the world. Actually, negative stereotyping of women and rigid gender roles keep them from entering male-dominated sectors or accessing top managerial positions (Kofi Anan, 2005: 5-12).

Stereotyping Arab women is a reality in both Arab and western media.

A-     Western media:

For decades, Western media showed Arab women as either veiled, conservative and dominated by men, or as sex objects, doing pornographic oriental dances to entertain men. The most dominant image prevailing nowadays is that of veiled, homebound, uneducated women who need help to take their first steps toward emancipation. Those types undoubtedly exist in the Arab world, so do highly educated, emancipated and professional women who are still struggling against restrictive social values.

1-      Cinema:

History reveals that since the beginning of cinema, Hollywood’s movies have humiliated, demonized, and eroticized Arab women. Obviously, film makers did not create these images but inherited and embellished Europe’s pre-existing Arab stereotypes. In the 18th and 19th centuries, European artists and writers offered fictional renditions of women as bathed and submissive exotic “objects”. The stereotype came to be accepted as valid, becoming an indelible part of European popular culture (Alloula, 1986; Shaheen, 2001).

Hollywood’s Arabia ‘is a place where young slave girls lie about on soft couches, stretching their slender legs, ready to do a good turn for any handsome stranger who stumbles into the room...”(Zinsser, 1961).

In his book “Reel Bad Arabs”, Shaheen noticed that “In Arabian Nights fantasies such as The Sheik (1921), Slave Girl (1947), and John Goldfarb, Please Come Home (1964), Arab women appear as leering out from diaphanous veils, or as unsatisfied, disposable ‘knick-knacks’ lounging on ornate cushions, scantily-clad harem maidens with bare midriffs, closeted in the palace’s women’s quarters and/or on display in slave markets” (Shaheen, 2001:23).

The stream continues in the third millennium. In Disney’s remake of “Around the World in Eighty Days” (2004), for example, Arnold Schwarzenegger portrays Prince Hapi, a Mideast sheikh with ‘one hundred or so wives.’ This means that films continue to show Arab woman as a slave for sex, even though the image of a terrorist dominated after 9/11.

2-      Newspapers:

A research paper aimed to analyze U.S. and international newspaper articles on Arab and Muslim women from 9/11/01 up to 9/11/05, with the aim of better understanding how women who wear the veil are represented in western media, found that “there are little time-periods where reporters looked beyond the stereotype and got to know Arab women and allow them to speak…Whether oppressed, victimized or turned into a superwoman, that woman in the news is more often not caricature of the Arab and Muslim woman in real life. Readers have not yet able to receive a consistent and accurate representation of the diverse personalities, lives and opinions of these women”. (Eltantawy, 28-29).

3-      TV shows

TV shows influence western people perceptions and attitudes towards various issues. So, most of the misperceptions towards Arab women are caused by the flow of information through TV stations.

For example, on the 28th of September 2009, Oprah Winfrey hosted the “Goodwill Ambassador for the UNICEF”; the famous Lebanese singer “Nancy Ajram” on her TV show on CBS station.  In that show, Winfrey referred to Lebanon as being “deeply conservative”, presented a documentary showing “Lebanese women veiled similar to the Afghani ones” and contrasted them with Nancy’s Ajram style and dance moves.

Oprah’s documentary surely misrepresented Lebanese women, who are the most modernized women in the region. Actually, Nancy Ajram style and fashion represent a large segment of Lebanese females. Statistics show that 75% of the Lebanese women are unveiled and have freedom of dress; women’s enrolment in tertiary education exceeded that of men with 44 per cent compared to 40 per cent of men; (ESCWA, 2004:19).

B-     Arab media:

Same misperceptions of women and representing them as sex objects are seen in Arab media for decades. Critics confronted the focus on women’s bodies prevalent in the media and called for new images of women as mothers, wives, and active participants in society. Queen Rania of Jordan, who was one of these voices, launched the “Arab women’s media campaign” to remind heads of satellite channels and other media leaders that they had a role to play in correcting misconceptions about Arab women and encouraged the efforts for changing current stereotypes affecting them, in a more strategic manner. (Queen Rania official website, 2005)

Arab media responded by developing more positive images of women that reflect daily life through featuring women in the Arab world as submissive wives “happily” using the products being sold. There was too much focus on housewives and too little attention given to women as workers or political leaders.

Therefore, Arab media focus has turned towards a different, but still stereotyped direction.

1-      Cinema and films

The most representative model of women in Arab cinema was found in Egyptian films during Egyptian cinema’s decades of output. Researchers studied the image of women in Egyptian films and found the following results:

1-      Films produced between 1962 and 1972 (410 films) showed the following diversity, by percentage:

43.4% no given profession

20% housewives, wives, divorcees, widows

20.5% working women

10.5% students

9.5% artists

The most significant, and by far the highest, percentage is that of women without any profession, i.e. women who are simply females.

In fact, the woman as just a female account for more than 80 per cent of women’s roles in commercial Arab films, and this portrayal has had the greatest influence on the public.

In such films, the woman is a cunning devil who seeks nothing but pleasure, marital or extramarital. All she wants is to catch a man, any man, since this is every woman’s highest goal. (UNDP, 2005: 157)

2-      Another research for the same UNDP report studied 31 films produced between 1990 and 2000  and recorded the following:

-           An exaggerated representation of the violence perpetrated by, and against, women;

Some of the movies and films in this period of time which portrayed women in scenes of sex and violence carried strong hatred for women, and had titles such as: “A Dangerous Woman”, “The Devil is a Woman”, “The Curse of a Woman”, “Torture is a Woman” etc.

-          The political roles featured in the sample turn out to be largely superficial and unconvincing and have little to do with women’s actual roles in life; they almost represent political women as an absolute dictator.

-          During the 1990s, the films neglected the problems facing peasant and working women, concentrating only on modern urban women without, however, reflecting the various dimensions of their personality as human beings;

-           Women's social, political and cultural roles were conspicuously absent from the films, indicating that Arab cinema shows no concern for the evolution of women’s position in Arab societies (UNDP, 2005:157).

3-      The UNDP report discusses also the impact of three movies after 2004:

a-      At the second half of 2004, a storm broke upon Egyptian film-making and the Arab world after the Egyptian film, “Bahibb is-Sima” (“I Love the Cinema”), directed by Usama Fawzi, and caused a public outcry. The film presents the character of a Coptic woman who suffers from sexual deprivation because of her husband’s religious extremism and enters into a sexual relationship with another man.

The censors first refused to let the film be released, then allowed it after cutting some scenes, and then reduced some of the cuts. Nevertheless, private individuals and institutions took the film to court and asked for it to be banned. More significantly, both Al- Azhar and the Coptic Church made common cause against the film (UNDP, 2005:158).

b-      A second major outcry occurred in 2005 and concerned the Egyptian film, “Al-Bahithat ‘an Al-Hurriyya” (“Women Searching for Freedom”), directed by Inas Al-Dighaydi. The film deals with the problems of three women from Egypt, Lebanon and Morocco living in Paris and searching for the freedom that they had lost in their own countries. Scores of articles were written against the film, which was dubbed “Women in Search of Sex”. Posters were vandalized and there was a general call for people not to see the film. The director was subjected to numerous false accusations and received several death threats. (158)

c-      In Syria, Muhammad Malas directed the film “Bab Al-Maqam” about a true incident took place in Aleppo at the beginning of the new millennium when a young Syrian killed his sister because she loved to sing the songs of Umm Kulthum at home. According to her father, if she loved those songs, she must have been in love, and if she was in love, “she had committed a shameful act”.

The report concludes that “Arab cinema plays a dual role stemming from its commercial nature. On the one hand, using the power of moving images to purvey stereotypes, it generalizes values of sexual discrimination. At the same time, particularly with the new cinema emerging in more than one Arab country, it sends progressive messages that reflect the wishes of new generations of women seeking freedom and self-assertion in order to realize their full human potential without being diminished or demeaned” (UNDP, 2005:158).

6- Talk shows and News

Although there has been a steady increase in the number of women professionals over the past 20 years in the Arab world, most mainstream press coverage continues to rely on men as experts in the fields of business, politics and economics, sports etc. Arab women in the news are more likely to be featured as victims in stories about accidents, natural disasters, or domestic violence than in stories about their professional abilities or expertise.

Arab women can be seen in the news and political talk shows as presenters or anchors but rarely as political leaders or experts, however, this inadequate women’s coverage seem to be a global phenomenon.

Based on information collected from monitoring news in 70 countries in different regions of the world, an international report entitled “who makes the news?” notes that “In stories on politics and government only 14% of news subjects are women; and in economic and business news only 20%. Even in stories that affect women profoundly, such as gender-based violence, it is the male voice (64% of news subjects) that prevails, while Women are more than twice as likely as men to be portrayed as victims”. That report adds that “Women make the news not as figures of authority, but as celebrities (42%), royalty (33%) or as 'ordinary people'… Female newsmakers outnumber males in only two occupational categories - homemaker (75%) and student (51 %)… Only 21 % of news subjects – the people who are interviewed, or whom the news is about – are females”. (GMMP, 2005:30-32)


Egypt was one of the Arab countries to join the report. The result of monitoring Egyptian news on the specific monitoring date 16 Feb. 2005 was as follows: “Not counting reporters and presenters, 40 women appeared in the news in all Egyptian media compared with 260 men”. The Egyptian researcher commented afterwards, “It is strange- to put it mildly- that half of the population is almost completely ignored” (GMMP, 2005:80).


The report found that even in talk shows and professional reports, “Expert opinion in the news is overwhelmingly male. Men are 83% of experts, and 86% of spokespersons. By contrast, women appear in a personal capacity - as eye witnesses (30%), giving personal views (31 %) or as representatives of popular opinion (34%)”. The report concludes that “The world we see in the news is a world in which women are virtually invisible”. (GMMP, 2005:16)

The White House Project, also, achieved three researches to find out the presence of women on Sunday morning talk shows on the five major networks: ABC, CBS, CNN, FOX and NBC:

-           The first “Who’s Talking” report found that men outnumbered women 9 to 1 on these agenda-setting shows. (White House Project, 2001:13).

-          The follow-up report found that there was little improvement—women only made up 13% of all guest appearances on the shows, and the vast majority of guests are still white and male. (White House Project, 2002:1).

-          In the 2005 study, called “Who's Talking Now” found more than half of Sunday morning news shows did NOT include a single women. (White House Project, 2005:7).


Therefore, we can conclude that the absence of women in news and talk shows is an international trend.

-          Women in Sports shows

Arab women athletes are also given short shrift in media. As it has been known that sports is a restricted domain for women in Saudi Arabia, and it is not easy for Arab females to be athletes in the conservative Arab societies where sports is regarded “a shameful profession” for ladies.

When Arab women first entered the traditionally male domain of sports, they faced a disparaging public. The widespread perception was that sports were a thing reserved for men. This, along with dress codes that contradict cultural norms and religious beliefs, created paralyzing obstacles for Arab women trying to break into the world of sports.

Al Jazeera’s English covered Arab women athletes training for the 2008 Olympics.  Moroccan runner, Palestinian boxers, a Qatar race-car driver, and Egyptian soccer players were shown. Among other topics, the show addressed opposition the women have faced being female in sports, especially concerning their clothing.

Even in the more modernized Arab countries, Arab women athletes still lack promotion and presence in Arab media. This is also recorded as an international phenomenon:

A report aimed to study sports coverage on three network affiliates in Los Angeles, concluded that “only 9 per cent of airtime was devoted to women’s sports, in contrast to the 88 per cent devoted to male athletes. Female athletes fared even worse on ESPN’s national sports show Sports Center, where they occupied just over 2 per cent of airtime”. (Duncan and Messner, Media awareness)

Duncan notes that commentators (97 per cent of whom are men) use different language when they talk about female athletes. Where men are described as "big," "strong," "brilliant," "gutsy" and "aggressive," women are more often referred to as "weary," "fatigued," "frustrated," "panicked," "vulnerable" and "choking." Commentators are also twice as likely to call men by their last names only, and three times as likely to call women by their first names only. Duncan argues that this "reduces female athletes to the role of children, while giving adult status to white male athletes."

-          Arab women in Ads

As many other issues, the representation of Arab women in advertisements was a mirror of the diverse cultural currents in the Arab region.

Advertisements shown in Saudi Arabia must show veiled women. Ads aiming for the Kuwaiti, Dubai and other Gulf markets, on the other hand, try to mix things up a bit, often going for the stylish, attractive, but conservative style that is increasingly becoming a trend among elites in the region.

For advertisements intended for the Gulf, women can be dressed casually and unveiled, but then men won’t be shown in the same scene of the storyboard. As for the Middle East, more modern and liberal women are shown. In Lebanon, “sexy, erotic” figures are shown in most of the ads.

In Egypt, Even though an estimated 80 percent of Egyptian women wear a veil in public today, it’s still rare to see a veiled woman in an ad specifically targeting the Egyptian market. However, it’s a different story on the Nile Sat nowadays.

Here come some examples from MBC4 station, which is owned by Saudi businessman and aired specifically for American programs on NileSat:

  1. During summer 2006, one KFC ad shows a group of beautiful young women at home, enjoying their fried chicken while having a girls’ night, then jumps to a separate scene of young guys eating their chicken on cushions, and then going outside to leap in a sports car.
  2. During spring 2007, Arabic-language ad spotlights a beautiful veiled young mother dressed all in white, serving soup (Knorr) to her family in perfect domestic bliss. In a second ad, a gorgeous model in a sexy sundress throws back a 7up while sunbathing on the concrete bank of a public fountain.

-          Women discussing taboos: 

Satellite broadcasting has provided an excellent opportunity for Arab women to access information and knowledge through the different satellite services.  Women access to national and international channels, make them more able to discuss topics that were previously considered taboos, but surely, not in all Arab countries.

In this aspect, we can mention two different cases:

1-    In October 2009, two female journalists in Saudi Arabia have been sentenced to 60 lashes over the participation in producing a TV show called “Bold Red Line”. It caused a huge scandal in Saudi Arabia when a Saudi man described his extra-marital sex life and talked about how he picked up Saudi women for sex.

In that program, which was aired in July 2009 on the Lebanese LBC satellite channel, Mazen Abdul-Jawad appeared to describe an active sex life and showed sex toys that were blurred by the station. The court sentenced Abdul-Jawad to five years in jail and 1,000 lashes; and LBC offices in Saudi Arabia were closed. (AFP, 24 Oct. 2009)

Actually, the case scandalized the ultraconservative country where such public talk about sex is taboo and the sexes are strictly separated.

2-    Another case is that of the popular Egyptian show named “Kalaam Kibeer” (big talk). Since 2006,every Saturday night at 11:30 on the Egyptian satellite channel El Mehwar, a veiled lady, Dr. Hoda Kotb, provides sex show education for different age groups: teenagers, couples on the verge of getting married, those already married who have sex problems, and those merely looking to boost their sex life, etc.

Kotb bravely talks about sex, in conservative and even primitive society that still adapt female circumcision till now.

There are good reasons to believe, that satellite channels may be the best venue for cultural changes in Arab World today.  Whilst the multiplicity of channels offered by satellite does not guarantee the growth of liberal discourse in Arab society at large, it increases the space for programs tackling taboo subjects which viewers can seek out independently.

In addition, the participatory nature of many satellites’ programs—the emphasis on viewer forums and live call-in components—encourages viewers to exercise their right to self-expression. Moreover, the rapid improvements in production quality, content and freedom in Arab satellite programming over the past few years has endowed taboo-tackling television with a credibility and authority which was previously unattainable.

III-                Social structures

Patriarchal relationships dominate Arab societies in general, even though differences among these societies exist.

Structures of patriarchy were not uniform across the region before colonialism (Sakr, 2002). Yet the Western model of the nation-state, complete with its gendered concepts of citizenship, became the compulsory model for Middle Eastern states emerging from colonialism, where it was imposed on already gendered systems of social stratification. The resulting "intersection" of patriarchies created a historically specific momentum of increasing control exercised over women by men, families, communities, and the state. (Sakr, 2004:7) 

So far, Arab women are still victims of societal discrimination by all means - not only victims of male domination. Nowhere in the Arab world do women enjoy equal rights and freedoms, let alone equal opportunities with men.

Family continues to be the first social institution that reproduces patriarchal relationships, values and pressures through gender discrimination. Such pressures on women increase in violence at times of crisis when a woman becomes subject to surveillance. The man’s right of disposal over her body, his watch over it, his use of it, his concealment, denial and punishment of it all become more blatant. This violence in turn comes into play to intensify the feminization of poverty, political misery, dependency, domination and alienation (UNDP, 2005:15).

Arab societies and communities begin their discrimination against women since childhood, through drawing different roles and practices for male and female kids. This continues at homes, schools, universities, and doesn’t end in the job opportunities.

Different scales of discrimination against women fill Arab daily lives: 

2-      In Gulf countries, it is not women but their male guardians, who have the authority to decide issues such as whether they may work, travel, or whom they may marry. However, this case is found but rarely in other countries like Lebanon, Tunisia, and Syria etc.

3-      Access to education remains a serious problem for women in some Arab countries, but in others, women are already better educated than men, however their real problem is the absence of opportunities to use their education and knowledge once they graduate.

4-      Literacy among women in Arab states has remained exceptionally low. Although the start of the twenty-first century found higher literacy among adult women than men in the Gulf emirates of Qatar and the UAE, elsewhere in the region this ratio was reversed, with female illiteracy reaching 76 percent in Yemen, 65 percent in Morocco, 57 percent in Egypt, 44 percent in Algeria, and 34 percent in Saudi Arabia (UNDP, 2001: 210).

Thus, discrimination against women varies considerably from country to country. This is true also in cases of political and civil rights, family laws, and access to education and jobs, or more generally, in the restrictions imposed on women by traditional social customs. Social classes, also, create additional discrimination against women in some Arab countries.

Of the sixteen countries located in the Middle East and North Africa, ten have signed, and nine have ratified, the Convention on All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Even in these countries, discrimination still exists and women’s political, educational, and especially personal rights vary greatly. (UNDP, 2002: table 31).

As for the female Journalists, discrimination is obvious in many Arab countries especially Saudi Arabia. Sabria Jawhar, for example, was the editor-in-chief of the daily Saudi Gazette. Jawhar reported telling her story, "I was on my way to attend a press conference when a guard refused to let me in because I’m a woman. So I said that I wasn’t a woman but a journalist coming to officially represent the newspaper. But he insisted and kept repeating, 'We don’t allow women in” (MENASSAT, 2008).

Female journalists in Saudi Arabia are not allowed to drive a car; even if their job requires them to do a lot of field work. They are still compelled to write under a pseudonym, or to use only their first name and the name of their father rather than the family name, in order to avoid harassment from people who still consider it a great shame for a woman's name to appear in print. Most female journalists have no diploma in journalism because none of the universities for women had a media studies program, as this was considered an inappropriate field for women.

Similarities in the Arab laws affecting women mean that programs about such laws in Arab media must not be seen as specific to a particular locality, but should be raised as social phenomena needed to be amended. For instance, local laws on divorce, rape, honor crimes, or mother's right to pass her nationality to her children resonate across the region, and there are no much differences between Arab states in these aspects. 

Women in some Arab countries started to challenge traditional structures. The 16-day campaign in 1998 held to encourage the Egyptian, Jordanian, Lebanese, Palestinian, and Yemeni media to break long-standing taboos on reporting about violence against women is a good example. The campaign built on reports achieved by an investigative reporter for the ‘Jordanian Times’ “Rana Husseini” who was the first to expose the phenomenon of so-called honor- crimes.

Husseini's coverage of this form of family violence provided evidence for a petition aimed at changing the Jordanian law that promises leniency for male perpetrators of such crimes. Parliament rejected the change in November 1999 but at least, the issue of honor killing had been brought into public view (Husseini, 2009).

Actually, Women in the Arab region experience what is called a "double jeopardy”. They are not only subject to the widespread restrictions on civic and political participation affecting both sexes, but are further denied autonomy by the discriminatory “personal status laws” based on Islamic “shari’aa” in most of Arab countries.

Whereas men in most Arab countries are not required to give a reason if they divorce their wives, women have to petition for divorce and take their cases to courts to prove "just cause," such as physical or psychological abuse.

Here comes an example that shows that Arab media, in some cases, had been more patriarchal than traditional communities:

Egyptian parliament approved a change in the “law of divorce” in January 2000. Under the new arrangements, a woman can divorce her husband unilaterally and without delay, on condition she return her dowry and surrender all financial rights, regardless of the length of her marriage and the reason for her decision to end it.

Despite the wide presence of women in the Egyptian media, this amendment of the divorce law was not presented as a step for freeing women from injustice and oppression, however as a battle won by women:

-          Newspaper cartoons showed men in chains or pushing baby buggies alongside mustached women.

-          The pro-government newspaper Al-Usbo'(the week) carried a headline declaring: "Men's era is over”.

-          Al-Wafd, published by the leading opposition party, said of the law: "No one has a good word to say about it."

IV-               Political Rights

Although women have made large strides professionally over the last century, politics remains a man’s world. Significant barriers stand in the way of more women assuming positions of political leadership—not least women’s own attitudes (Hunt, 2007).

In most Arab countries, political rights of all their citizens, men and women, are severely curtailed. Even when recognized in laws, they are rarely respected in practice. Stereotypes, political party gatekeepers, the roles that societies expect women to conform to, and the lack of resources are some of the obstacles preventing women from running for high-level policymaking offices in Arab world.

Only two Arab countries do not recognize the right of women to vote and to stand for elections. These two, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), do not hold elections in the first place; and Kuwait was the only country that holds regular elections but excluded women until recently in 2006.

Some Middle Eastern states recognized the political rights of women relatively early—Syria in 1949, Lebanon in 1952, Egypt in 1956, and Tunisia in 1957etc. however, in a cultural and social environment inimical to women’s acquisition and free exercise of their political rights, it takes more than legal edicts to make gender equality in political participation a reality.

In fact, No comprehensive data are available about whether Arab women vote autonomously rather than following the directions of the leader man in the family.

It was a paradox in Kuwaiti parliamentary elections 2006, for example, whereas Kuwaiti women, who were the first time to vote after decades of Marginalization, elected the Islamic fundamentalists who denied their right to vote. None of the 54 women who stood for election in Kuwait in 2006 and 2008 made it. In 2009, only 4 won out of the 16 women candidates who ran and in two out of five electoral constituencies, women candidates came on top of the polls.

Women constitute over 54% of eligible voters in Kuwait, yet they accounted for only 35% of those who voted in 2006 - the first elections that women could participate in. A recent study has also shown that in the 2008 elections only 3% of women voters cast their votes for women candidates. (UNDP news, 31May 2009)

So, it has been found that few women stand for office in Arab world even when they are allowed to do so by law and fewer are appointed to ministerial positions. The presence of women in parliaments and ministerial positions ranges from none in most Arab countries to a maximum of about 12 percent in rare cases.

As for Lebanon, referred as the most democratic state in the region, the parliamentary elections held in June 2009 revealed a significant decline in the role of women both in terms of the number of candidates and in terms of electoral victories, in contrast to a remarkable female voter turnout witnessed in most Lebanese regions.

Evaluating the election results, note the following trends:

1 – The number of female MPs decreased by 35 percent in Parliament compared to the year 2005, and the number of female parliamentarians was reduced to four out of 128, which is far fewer than politically restricted neighbors such as Syria, which had 30 women MPs out of 250; Jordan which had 13 out of 165; and Egypt which had 31 out of 718.

It is important to note that the ascension of these four female parliamentarians was tied to their political heritages and the influence of their slain relatives not to their own capacities.

2 – The level of women’s participation as candidates in the parliamentary elections dropped from 34 women in the 2000 elections to just 14 women in the 2005 rounds, i.e. to just 3.5 percent of the number of candidates, ending up at 12 women in the 2009 parliamentary elections, less than two percent of candidates.

3 – On contrary, Women’s voter turnout exceeded that of men. A comparison of voter turnout in the rounds that saw a heated and extremely politicized electoral battle indicates that Lebanese women are no less politically active or enthusiastic than men (Rahbani, 2009).

Some other Arab governments, influenced by United States’ recommendations, have made an effort to appoint more women to national legislatures and high-level government positions. Countries such as Egypt, Jordan, or Morocco, for example, which have proven adept at maintaining a balance between authoritarianism and limited democratic freedoms, did some minor changes in the position of women without much difficulty.

Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar are moving hesitantly in that direction, with the governments apparently in full control of the pace of change. Saudi Arabia has been very wary of embarking on any type of reform, social or political.

Hence, Governing remains an overwhelmingly male prerogative in Arab countries, but it is worth to note that this is true all around the world, except in some Scandinavian countries. Formal equality of rights does not translate easily into equal political roles for men and women even in the countries where women are most emancipated. (Tinker, 2004: 5).

Today there are more women in government than ever before, but the global average of women in assemblies in 2008 was 18.4%. Yet even at the current rate of increase, developing countries will not reach the ‘parity zone' where neither sex holds more than 60% of seats until 2045.(UNIFEM,2008:17)

To what extent did media help empowering Arab women in political issues?

To answer this question, we shall give Lebanon as an example, because Lebanon is regarded as the most liberal and democratic country in the region:

Lebanon's election campaign 2009 was full of women — except where it counts i.e. in candidates’ lists. The ad campaigns of both the opposition and the pro-government blocs tried to draw women to the ballot box:

During May 2009, the Free Patriotic Movement which is a party in the opposition in Lebanon tried to win women’s votes through ads campaign where a seductive woman looks out from the billboards that line Beirut's highways proclaiming “Be Beautiful and Vote". This prompted the pro-government blocs to respond with their own ad campaign that stated “Be Equal and Vote!” though featuring, of course, an equally sexy model. These campaigns led a lingerie brand to jump in with its own mock election ad: a woman in silky underwear urging, "Vote for me."

The electoral campaigns called on women to vote, but they were not embarrassed in the dismal number of female candidates on their party lists.

One of the four female winners was the journalist “Nayla Tueni”. However, she didn’t ascend to the parliament for her media achievements at all, however, she seek the seat of her father, Gibran, who was assassinated in 2005 by a car bombing. "The majority of the elected women started their political life after a tragic incident — the murder of a husband, father or brother. This is our situation and we do not deny it," the journalist Tueni declared bluntly.

Conclusion

New technologies, especially media technology, can equally be used to do the same things in the same way, perpetuating the inequality, squelching diversity or fostering exclusivity.

The advances made in information technology have benefits as well as disadvantages for women. Indeed, new technologies may throw up social boundaries linked to gender, but there is another possibility that housework technologies might increase women's isolation in their homes. The deployment of new media, in other words, involves both opportunities and challenges.

Actually, increased numbers of women working in the communications sector has not translated into increased access to power and decision-making in media organizations; women have not been able to influence media policies.

Although the number of Arab female journalists increased simultaneously, there is still lack of gender sensitivity in media policies and programs; instead there is increased promotion of consumerism. Women’s presence behind the screen didn’t sum up in more stories being handled from female perspective. Female journalists and producers resisted being assigned to such stories for fear of being “typecast”.

Meanwhile, the number of women working in the media is not an indication of their influence over content. Women continue to be portrayed in a stereotyped manner by the media; and there is an increase in violent and pornographic images of women.

Arab media hired more female reporters, announcers, presenters, technicians, and production assistants but no female high executives; this means that women may have "presence," but not a "role".

Editorially, Arab women journalists are not as empowered as their numbers would suggest. Decision-making is primarily in male hands, swayed by local, regional and international political and economic currents, given the country's geographic position.


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Humanitarian Intervention: the need for legitimacy

Leila Nicolas Rahbany- May 2007

Paper awarded the highest grade at Kort Waldheim contest for the "best academic research2007"

Introduction:

The decade and a half since the end of the Cold War has witnessed the rise, albeit at first ever so tentatively, of the idea of the “humanitarian intervention,” followed by an extensive and rather sophisticated debate concerning its legality and ethics.

A dilemma was raised between the concept of humanitarian intervention and the classic Westphalian concept of state sovereignty, canonized in the UN Charter, in which the autonomy in the domestic sphere of each independent state was absolute—a modern version of the late medieval maxim of “rex imperator in regno suo” which means “each king is an emperor in his own kingdom, he recognized no superior authority”.(1)

In many states, the result of the end of the Cold War has been a new emphasis on democratization, respect for human rights and good governance. But in too many others, the result has been internal war or civil conflict – more often than not with political and humanitarian repercussions.

Humanitarian intervention poses the hardest test for an international society built on principles of sovereignty, non-intervention, and non use of force. Sovereign states are expected to act as guardians of their citizens’ security and rights, but what happens if these states act as gangsters towards their people, treating sovereignty as a license to kill? Should the international community intervene to help save people from their dictators, or the state sovereignty concept prohibits this intervention for it is considered as pure domestic jurisdiction? This became the subject of controversy of local and international levels as on the theoretical and practical level.

Humanitarian intervention has been controversial in international relations both when it happens, and when it has failed to happen. For example, the case of Rwanda in 1994 exposed the full horror of inaction. Reports said that

        “The United Nations Secretariat and some permanent members of the Security Council has knew that officials connected to the government were planning genocide; UN forces were present, though not in sufficient number at the outset; and credible strategies were available to prevent, or at least greatly mitigate, the slaughter which followed. But the Security Council refused to take the necessary action. That was a failure of international will at the highest level. Its consequence was not merely a humanitarian catastrophe for Rwanda; however, the genocide destabilized the entire Great Lakes region(2).

In the aftermath, many African people concluded that, despite of all speeches that talk about the universality of human rights, some human lives are of great deal to the international community than others, and others considered that lack of action was an indication of Great powers’ policies to cut down the increasing population of poor countries.

Another intervention did take place in Kosovo in 1999. In an article entitled “The Short, Unhappy Life of Humanitarian War,” Charles Krauthammer writes in scathing terms about humanitarian military intervention and concludes by remarking the “successful” Kosovo intervention, “This is what happens when you win”.(3)However, this operation raised major questions about the legitimacy of military intervention in a sovereign state. Was the cause just? Were the human rights abuses committed severe enough to deserve outside involvement or did the media- or what is considered as “CNN effect”- play the major role in creating a public opinion keen on intervention? Did those seeking secession manipulate external intervention to advance their political purposes? Were all peaceful means of resolving the conflict fully explored and exhausted? If the NATO has not intervened, would Kosovo have been at best the site of an ongoing, bloody and destabilizing civil war?

This debate raised an important question regarding the effectiveness of the use of force in promoting respect for humanitarian values and long term reconstruction in murderous and failed states. Then there was also the issue whether states can be trusted with the responsibility to act as agents of common humanity, and to what extent can the international community hold the states responsible for the lack of respect of human rights. Do these sanctions solve the problem or add to peoples’ suffering like the case of Iraq? Who is really punished: the victim or the criminal?

Some argued the international community is not intervening enough; for others it is intervening much too often. For some, the only real issue is in ensuring that coercive interventions are effective; for others, questions about legality, process and the possible misuse of precedent loom much larger. For some, the new interventions herald a new world in which human rights trumps state sovereignty; for others, it ushers in a world in which big powers ride over the smaller ones, manipulating the rhetoric of humanitarianism and human rights. The controversy has laid bare basic divisions within the international community. In the interest of all those victims who suffer and die when leadership and institutions fail, it is crucial that these divisions be resolved.

Discussing of these issue constitute the core concern of this paper. The first part will set up the definition, theories, and changes in concepts of humanitarian intervention, human security and state sovereignty. The second will discuss the change in terminology from “right to intervene” to responsibility to protect” and all its effects. The final part will review the practice of the Human Rights Council and make some suggestions for increasing its effectiveness and try to find mechanisms for legitimizing humanitarian intervention.


1) Human values change traditional concept of sovereignty


A - The concept of humanitarian intervention: problems of definition

In his classical definition of intervention R.J. Vincent suggests that it is:

”an activity undertaken by state, a group within a state, a group of states or an international organization which interferes coercively in the domestic affairs of another state. It is a discrete event having a beginning and an end, and it is aimed at the authority structure of the target state. It is not necessarily lawful or unlawful, but it does break a conventional pattern of international relations”(1).

Vincent was not writing specifically of humanitarian intervention but his definition sums up the traditional view. The phrase “humanitarian intervention” is usually used as a term to focus attention on one particular category of interventions – namely, those undertaken for the purpose of protecting or assisting people at risk. As Murphy describes it: “the use of military force by one state or a group of states against another state not for the purpose of self defense but rather for the purpose of preventing the widespread deprivation of human rights(2).

However, the militarization of the word “humanitarian” was strongly opposed expressed by humanitarian agencies, humanitarian organizations and humanitarian workers. Those organizations had a great desire to separate the aid and help they were offering to people from the military intervention by states, even it was carried out necessary for saving human lives. They regarded that whatever the motives of those states engaging in the intervention, it is anathema for the humanitarian relief and assistance to describe any kind of military action by “humanitarian”. Also some political authors suggested that the use of the word “humanitarian” in this context tends to prejudge the issue in question– that is, whether the intervention is in fact defensible. For all these reasons, many authors besides the “International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty” found it appropriate to use the term “military intervention,” for human protection purposes instead of “humanitarian intervention”(1).

Conventionally, humanitarian intervention is defined in terms of military intervention motivated by humanitarian considerations, but this raises the question as to what counts as humanitarian? The Red Cross defines humanitarian acts as “those that prevent and alleviate human suffering”. This definition assumes that humanitarian acts are the same across time and space, denying the fact that there is controversy over the universalism or relativism of human rights and humanitarianism. It implies that a capacity for humanitarianism is naturally inherent in all humans by virtue of a common human nature. Critics of this position argue that what counts human suffering changes from one historical epoch to another. There is nothing natural or inevitable about who gets defined as human\ inhuman. Thus, slavery was regarded as perfectly natural in one century and identified as a scourge against humanity in the next(2).

This illustrates that the concept of humanitarianism is culturally specific and it is differently stated and accepted according to culture, religion, time, region, political interests.. and has its own biases.


b- Approaches to humanitarian intervention: Solidarism vs. Pluralism

In 1859 John Stuart Mill suggested that there are ‘assuredly cases in which it is allowable to go to war, without having been ourselves attacked or threatened with attack’.(3)

Some political philosophers, regarded as cosmopolitans, say that nations should not intervene for national welfare reasons, they should not intervene in preemptive self-defense, or for any other national welfare enhancement reason except when acting in self-defense from an actual (or perhaps imminent) armed attack. Interventions for humanitarian reasons, by contrast, are sometimes justified. Interventions that are genuinely motivated by other factors-regarding humanitarian concerns may be technically illegal, but are nonetheless legitimate when done to halt massive human rights abuses. Some cosmopolitan theorists go further and claim that nations sometimes have a duty, not just a right, to intervene to stop such abuses.

Some authors referring to cosmopolitan tradition in international relations argue that militaries in a globalized world have a new role in what has been variously described as ‘cosmopolitan law enforcement’ or the ‘new military humanism’(4). They point to the fact that military forces are already being employed less and less in the defense of the state and more and more on broader regional and international security and humanitarian tasks.

They ask for the consecration of a new norm in international relations which recognizes and sanctions a right to intervene in the internal affairs of states. More specifically and with a more direct focus on the human security interests of people, it has been considered as a ‘right to secure the delivery of humanitarian assistance by force(1)’. This involves more than new coercive missions or new justifications for intervention. It shows how ‘solidarity with strangers … can be made possible(2)’. The solidarist theory moral argument rests on the assumption that an order based on individual rights, rather than state sovereignty, would endorse humanitarian intervention.

These contemporary accounts suggest that in the twentieth century, many people were killed by their own governments or died in international and civil wars in the same period. It is therefore legitimate to ask not just how we should respond to what Axel Honneth calls ‘morally uncurbed aggression’(3) but also to ask upon what ethical basis we do so as well as how best and in what ways to intervene, and this refers specifically to the old concept of” just war” theory that deals with the justification of why (The Jus Ad Bellem) and how (The Principles Of Jus In Bello) wars are fought. This “just war” theory was first raised by Augustine, St.Thomas Aquinas and developed by Kant in his “Perpetual Peace”, was raised again by the academics after the terrorist attacks on the USA on 9/11 in order to reveal how just was the war on Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq.

The arguments of cosmopolitan writers known also as solidarists, elaborated in a range of literatures can be summarized as follows:

First, humankind is ultimately bound together as a single moral community (a community of fate) with shared and equally-valued rights and obligations which ‘transcend the morally parochial world of the sovereign state(4)’. The consequence of such a morally unified world is (as Immanuel Kant avowed) “that a right violated anywhere is felt everywhere. We therefore have a moral commitment to those who are not our co-nationals”.

Richard Falk refers to this as an ‘ethos of responsibility and solidarity(5)’ which is fundamental to a contemporary cosmopolitan ethic.

Second, this compassion to ‘outsiders’ goes beyond Kant’s cosmopolitan right of hospitality to include a powerful normative commitment to the creation of democratic or humane forms of global governance. This cosmopolitan democratic imperative requires new forms of global political community based on the principles of dialogue and consent rather than power and force, and on the construction of universal frameworks of communication(6). This ensures that those who are most vulnerable, powerless and marginalized are empowered to refuse, renegotiate and contest. This is not simply an intellectual account of the good political community. Rather, as Anthony McGrew points out, it ‘identifies the political possibilities inherent in the present’(7) and, as Graeme Chessman observes ‘seeks to put in place the means to translate these into future actualities(8)’.

Third, these political arrangements are embedded in a growing body of international law which embodies both democratic and humanitarian principles including those of international humanitarian law, the related laws of warfare and international human rights law. Among other things, this cosmopolitan law is argued to permit and facilitate (and perhaps require) intervention ‘in the internal affairs of each state in order to protect certain basic rights(1)’.

However, objections that have been advanced by scholars and international lawyers to this cosmopolitan theory and to forcible humanitarian intervention are five.

These objections are not mutually exclusive, but rather can be found in many scholars’ publications: (2)

First: states don’t intervene for only humanitarian reasons:

Realists tell us that states only pursue their national interests. As Goldsmith explains: “Liberal democracies rarely if ever engage in humanitarian interventions to stop human rights abuses that lack a local-welfare-enhancing justification”(3).

Second: States are not allowed to risk their soldiers’ lives on humanitarian crusades:

Realists argue that leaders don’t have the moral right to shed blood on behalf of suffering humanity, and voters in democratic states do not generally support humanitarian interventions. Even when opinion polls show support for some types of humanitarian intervention, voter preferences for intervention are not intense. They are conditioned on guarantees of success, and do not extend to humanitarian interventions that are costly in terms of blood and treasure, this explains the rise of public demands for the withdrawal from Iraq after the death of more than 3500 American soldiers in Iraq.

Third: the problem of abuse:

Realists argue that in the absence of an impartial mechanism for deciding when humanitarian intervention is permissible, states may espouse humanitarian motives as a pretext to cover pursuit of national self- interest. Leaders always premise international acts on an instrumental cost-benefit analysis, and the cost-benefit analysis focuses primarily on whether the international act will enhance or protect national welfare. Such a calculus obviously does not preclude other-regarding actions, but it tends to limit such other-regarding actions to those that also enhance national welfare.

“This problem of abuse leads some to say that humanitarian intervention will always be a weapon that the strong will use against the weak”.(4).

Fourth: selectivity of response:

Because states will be governed by what they judge to be their national interest, they will intervene only when they deem this to be at stake. The problem of selectivity arises when an agreed moral principle is at stake in more than one situation, but national interests dictate a divergence of responses(5).This explains the West’s long delay in intervening to stop the atrocities in Bosnia, and why the United States pulled out of Somalia when Americans began to suffer casualties, and why the West declined to intervene in Rwanda or Sudan. And it is also the lesson of the Kosovo intervention where humanitarian concerns were present- of course- and important there, but preservation of NATO’s credibility, the prevention of broader conflicts in central Europe, the domination of ex- Eastern Europe, and the settlement of American bases in Europe… were equally important public justifications. The Kosovo example shows that democracies intervene to prevent atrocities when there is a coincident national welfare enhancement rationale.


Fifth: disagreement on what principles should govern a right of humanitarian intervention:

Hudley Bull defined this conception as “one in which states are capable of agreement only for certain minimum purposes, the most crucial being reciprocal recognition of sovereignty and the norm of non-intervention. He was worried that in the absence of a consensus on what principles should govern the right of individual or collective humanitarian intervention; such a right would undermine international order. And as suggested by Chris Brown: “the general problem here is that humanitarian intervention is always going to be based on the cultural predilections of those with the power to carry it out”(1).

Scholars, philosophers and politicians are still divided and have not reached a consensus yet about legitimizing the humanitarian intervention which made it controversial and debated.

c -from sovereign impunity to national and international accountability

In this new world which is marked by inequalities of power, wealth and resources, sovereignty is regarded for many states their best – and sometimes seemingly their only – line of defense. But sovereignty is more than just a functional principle of international relations, it is also recognition of equal worth and dignity for many states and peoples, a protection of their unique identities and their national freedom, and an affirmation of their right to shape and determine their own destiny. In recognition of this, the principle that all states are equally sovereign under international law was established as a cornerstone of the UN Charter and the basis of international relations for many decades since the treaty of Westphalia.

However, the conditions under which sovereignty is exercised – and intervention is practiced – have changed dramatically since 1945. Evolving international law has set many constraints on what states can do and not do, and this was not limited to the realm of human rights.

The defense of state sovereignty, by even its strongest supporters, does not include any claim to the unlimited power of a state to do what it wants either to its own people or to others.

Sovereignty as responsibility implies:

Externally – it is a corresponding obligation that the state should respect other state’s sovereignty, and refrain from intervening in domestic affairs of other states (Article 2.7 of the UN Charter),

Internally, it exercises exclusive and total jurisdiction within its territorial borders and must respect the dignity and basic rights of all the people within the state.

In international human rights covenants, in UN practice, and in state practice itself, sovereignty is now understood as embracing this dual responsibility. Sovereignty as responsibility has become the minimum content of good governance as well as international citizenship(2).

The Ex UN Secretary-General kofi Anan has discussed the dilemma in the conceptual language of the two notions of sovereignty, one vested in the state, the second in the people and individuals. His approach reflects the ever-increasing commitment around the world to democratic government (of, by and for the people) and greater freedoms and human rights. The second notion of sovereignty to which he refers should not be seen as any kind of challenge to the traditional notion of state sovereignty, rather it is a way of saying that the more traditional notion of state sovereignty should be able to embrace comfortably the goal of greater self-empowerment and freedom for people, both individually and collectively.

Thinking of sovereignty as responsibility, in a way that is being increasingly recognized in state practice, has three major implications:

First, it implies that the state authorities are responsible for protecting the safety and lives of citizens and promotion of their welfare.

Second, it suggests that the national political authorities are responsible to the citizens internally and to the international community through the UN.

And third, it means that the agents of state are liable for their actions; that is to say, they are accountable for their acts of commission and omission. The case for thinking of sovereignty in these terms is strengthened by the ever-increasing impact of international human rights norms, and the increasing impact in international discourse of the concept of “human security”.(1).

The traditional, narrow perception of security leaves out the most elementary and legitimate concerns of ordinary people regarding security in their daily lives. It made states divert enormous amounts of national wealth and resources into armaments and armed forces, while countries fail to protect their citizens from chronic insecurities of hunger, disease, inadequate shelter, crime, unemployment… this was the case of many states in the Middle East as well as in many regions.

The awareness of today’s challenges and when rape is used as an instrument of war and ethnic cleansing, when thousands are killed by floods resulting from a ravaged countryside and when citizens are killed by their own security forces, it is just insufficient to think of security in “traditional” terms.  “This implies that states will not enjoy development without security, will not enjoy security without development, and will not enjoy either without respect for human rights”(2).

The meaning and scope of security have become much broader since the UN Charter was signed in 1945 where the main concern of its founders was with “State security” in the traditional military sense. They wanted to build a system of collective security in which states join together and pledge that aggression against one is aggression against all, and commit themselves in that event to react collectively. In the opening words of the Charter, the United Nations was created “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights” and “to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom”. This meant that the founders of the UN understood well, long before the idea of human security gained currency, the indivisibility of security, economic development and human freedom and this was the direct cause of establishing the ECOSOC.

The new approach of Human security means the security of people – their physical safety, their economic and social well-being, respect for their dignity and worth as human beings, and the protection of their human rights and fundamental freedoms(3). Secretary-General Kofi Annan put this issue of human security at the centre of the current debate, in his statement to the 54th session of the General Assembly to “address the prospects for human security and intervention in the next century.”

The central challenge for the twenty-first century is to fashion a new and broader understanding, of what human security means and of all its responsibilities, commitments, strategies and institutions. This concept of human security has become an increasingly important element in international law and international relations, providing a conceptual framework for international action, and is now recognized to extend to people as well as to states.

If there is to be a new security consensus, it must start with the understanding that the front-line actors in dealing with all the threats we face, new and old, continue to be individual sovereign States, whose role and responsibilities, and right to be respected, are fully recognized in the Charter of the United Nations. But in the twenty-first century, where challenges are more than ever before and where no State, no international organization, can stand wholly alone against these challenges, collective strategies, collective institutions and a sense of collective responsibility are indispensable. The essence of that consensus is simple “we all share responsibility for the welfare of human race”(1).

- From the “right to intervene” to “responsibility to protect”


Despite of all technological and economic progress, millions of human beings remain at the mercy of civil wars, abuses of human rights, discrimination, state repression and state collapse. Millions of ordinary people need protection because their states are unwilling or unable to protect them.

However, there are continuing fears at the international level about the “right to intervene” issue. The international community has been concerned how to develop consistent, credible and enforceable standards to guide state and intergovernmental practice in order to legitimize military intervention for humanitarian purposes.

The experience and aftermath of Somalia, Rwanda, Srebrenica and Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq as well as interventions and non-interventions in a number of other places, have provided a clear indication that the tools, devices and thinking of international relations need to be reassessed, in order to meet the foreseeable needs of the 21st century.

The “International Commission on Intervention & State Sovereignty” stated in its report that any approach to intervention on human protection grounds needs to meet at least four basic objectives:

1. “To establish clearer rules, procedures and criteria for determining whether, when and how to intervene;

2. To establish the legitimacy of military intervention when necessary and after all other approaches have failed;

3. To ensure that military intervention, when it occurs, is carried out only for the purposes proposed, is effective, and is undertaken with proper concern to minimize the human costs and institutional damage that will result; and

4. To help eliminate, where possible, the causes of conflict while enhancing the prospects for durable and sustainable peace”.(2)

The commission recommended changing the language of past debates arguing for or against a “right to intervene” by one state on the territory of another state, and suggested changing this “right to intervene” to a concept of a “responsibility to protect.

It stated that the “traditional language of the sovereignty–intervention debate – in terms of “the right of humanitarian intervention” or the “right to intervene” – is unhelpful in at least three key respects:

“First, it necessarily focuses attention on the claims, rights and prerogatives of the potentially intervening states much more so than on the urgent needs of the potential beneficiaries of the action.

Second, by focusing narrowly on the act of intervention, the traditional language does not adequately take into account the need for either prior preventive effort or subsequent follow-up assistance, both of which have been too often neglected in practice.

And third, the familiar language does effectively operate to trump sovereignty with intervention at the outset of the debate: it loads the dice in favor of intervention before the argument has even begun, by tending to label and delegitimize dissent as anti-humanitarian”(3).


The key issue in the term “the responsibility to protect” is that it focuses attention on the human needs of those seeking protection or assistance. It directs the attention to the costs and results of action versus no action, and provides conceptual, normative and operational linkages between assistance, intervention and reconstruction.

“The proposed change in terminology is also a change in perspective, reversing the perceptions inherent in the traditional language, and adding some additional ones:

First, the responsibility to protect implies an evaluation of the issues from the point of view of those seeking or needing support, rather than those who may be considering intervention. It refocuses the international searchlight back where it should always be: on the duty to protect communities from mass killing, women from systematic rape and children from starvation

Second, the responsibility to protect acknowledges that the primary responsibility in this regard rests with the state concerned, and that it is only if the state is unable or unwilling to fulfill this responsibility, or is itself the perpetrator, that it becomes the responsibility of the international community to act in its place.

In many cases, the state will seek to acquit its responsibility in full and active partnership with representatives of the international community. Thus the “responsibility to protect” is more of a linking concept that bridges the divide between intervention and sovereignty; the language of the “right or duty to intervene” is intrinsically more confrontational. (1) 

Third, the substance of the responsibility to protect is the provision of life-supporting protection and assistance to populations at risk. This responsibility has three integral and essential components: not just the responsibility to react to an actual or apprehended human catastrophe, but the responsibility to prevent it, and the responsibility to rebuild after the event(2).

A - The responsibility to prevent

Prevention of deadly conflicts, genocides, and human sufferings is considered first and foremost the responsibility of sovereign states and their institutions. The failure of prevention can have wide international consequences and costs. As such support from the international community is recommended. Such support may take different forms. It may come in the form of economic and social development assistance and as support for local initiatives to advance good governance, representative authorities, and respect of human rights, or as good offices missions, mediators….

Thus, the essential conditions have been suggested to ensure effective prevention of conflict, and dealing with related sources of human misery, three essential conditions have to be met:

First, there has to be knowledge of the fragility of the situation and the risks associated with it – so called “early warning.”…

Second, there has to be understanding of the policy measures available that are capable of making a difference – the so-called “preventive toolbox.”..

And third, there has to be, the willingness to apply those measures – the issue of “political will(3).”

B - The responsibility to react:

The “responsibility to protect” implies above all else a responsibility to react to the situations of compelling need for human protection. When preventive measures fail to resolve or contain the situation and when a state is unable or unwilling to redress the situation, then interventionary measures by other members of the broader community of states may be required. Similarly, and as it is stated in the UN charter, coercive measures must be proportional to the wrongful act and ascending from political, economic or judicial measures, and in extreme cases, they may reach military action. As a matter of first principles, in the case of reaction just as with prevention, less intrusive and coercive measures should always be considered before more coercive and intrusive ones are applied.

“Tough threshold conditions should be satisfied before military intervention is contemplated. For political, economic and judicial measures the barrier can be set lower, but for military intervention it must be high: for military action ever to be defensible the circumstances must be grave indeed. But the threshold or “trigger” conditions are not the end of the matter. There are a series of additional precautionary principles which must be satisfied, to ensure that the intervention remains both defensible in principle and workable and acceptable in practice(1).


C -The responsibility to rebuild:

The responsibility to protect implies the responsibility not just to prevent and react, but to follow through and rebuild. This means that if military intervention action is taken, there should be a genuine commitment to help build a durable peace, and promoting good governance and sustainable development. Conditions of public safety and order have to be reconstituted by international agents acting in partnership with local authorities, with the goal of progressively transferring to them authority and responsibility to rebuild.

Lessons from earlier cases of intervention show that, the exit of the interveners has been poorly managed, that the commitment to help with reconstruction has been inadequate, and inhabitants have found themselves in humanitarian catastrophes much more than the original ones that required intervention or worse resulted from it.  As such scholars and advocates of human rights suggest that one of the essential functions of an intervention force must be providing security and protection for all members of a population, regardless of ethnic origin or relation to the previous source of power in the territory. The question on how to achieve this in the light of the conflict between different national, ethnic, political, economic interests remain to be answered. Iraq’s case remains the recent example of dealing with such issues. The cost of rebuilding is usually very high. This raises important questions as the donor’s expectations from the short and long run, and with the fear that this may be a new recipe for domestic and international conflicts always looming. The same issue is raised now in Iraq.

In addition to security, the durable peace needs disarmament of armed groups, demobilization and reintegration of local security forces. Reintegration will usually take the longest time to achieve, but the whole process cannot be judged to have been successful until it is complete. It is also a necessary element of returning a country to law and order since a demobilized soldier, unless properly reintegrated into society, with sustainable income, will probably turn to armed crime or armed political opposition.

Another element of the same problem is the rebuilding of new national armed forces and police, integrating as far as possible elements of the formerly competing armed factions or military forces.

Meanwhile, Ensuring sustainable reconstruction and rehabilitation will involve the commitment of sufficient funds and resources and close cooperation with local people, and may mean staying in the country for some period of time after the initial purposes of the intervention have been accomplished. (2)

3 - UN Human rights council: practice and the need of effectiveness:


Since the very birth of the United Nations, promoting and protecting fundamental human rights has been one of the primary objectives of the organization.

The drafters of the Charter of the United Nations included a pledge by member states “to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women.”(1)

Yet the U.N.’s record in promoting fundamental human rights in recent times has not been sufficient enough. The work of the United Nations in the field of human rights has been traditionally grounded in a combination of genuine concern for the need to protect the dignity of the individual as well as reserving “national interests” of states, and reserving the interests of big powers especially the permanent Five.


Suggestions:

If a compromise is to be reached to maintain the sovereignty of states and at the same time guarantee the human security, we suggest the UN organization should be given major role in this aspect.

The UN commission of human rights was replaced lately (2006) by the Human Rights Council which is thought to be far better than the old Commission, yet it is not perfect.

The human rights council can be given a major role in determining when, where and how to apply the “responsibility to protect” and can legitimize military intervention for humanitarian purposes.


A) The right authority to intervene:

- We suggest that the right authority to intervene or to have the responsibility to protect must be the security council of UN. 

No doubt that there is no better or more appropriate body than the Security Council to deal with military intervention issues for human protection purposes. It is the Security Council which should be making the hard decisions in the hard cases about overriding state sovereignty. And it is the Security Council which should be making the often even harder decisions to mobilize effective resources, including military resources, to rescue populations at risk when there is no serious opposition on sovereignty grounds. If international consensus is ever to be reached about when, where, how and by whom military intervention should happen, it is very clear that the central role of the Security Council will have to be at the heart of that consensus. The task is not to find alternatives to the Security Council as a source of authority, but to make the Security Council work much better than it has”(2).

- We suggest that all callings for interventions must be formally requested and addressed only to human rights council (HRC), which raises a report informing the Security Council.

- We suggest that any intervention outside the authority of Security Council should be considered as an act of “aggression”.

-In order to do such work we suggest some amendments to the chapter VII of the UN charter, to add this statement “in cases of severe human rights abuses” to the title of chapter VII. so the title will be” action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace , acts of aggression, and severe human rights abuses”.

-We suggest that HRC be given much more capability and authority to request of Security Council reports to intervene when there are great abuses of human rights which were identified and recognized by the international commission for intervention and state sovereignty as:

1- “Large scale loss of life, actual or apprehended, with genocidal intent or not, which is the product either of deliberate state action, or state neglect or inability to act, or a failed state situation;

2. Large scale “ethnic cleansing,” actual or apprehended, whether carried out by killing, forced expulsion, acts of terror or rape.

If either or both of these conditions are satisfied, the “just cause” component of the decision to intervene is amply satisfied”(1).

– An issue remains to be addressed, however, that is the veto power enjoyed by the present Permanent Five. As it has been said, it is that one veto can override the rest of humanity on matters of grave humanitarian concern.

We suggest an agreement done by the Permanent Five that they shall refrain from using the veto with respect to actions that are needed to stop or avert a significant humanitarian catastrophes. The expression “constructive abstention” can be used in this context.


B) The right authority to decide whether to intervene or not:

-  Ideally there must be a report, from a universally respected and impartial non-government source which we suggest that the UN HRC; be the only and exclusive authority to determine whether to intervene or not. However, a report legitimizing the military intervention for human purposes should have two thirds of affirmative votes in the council.

– We see that it will be necessary, in each case, the HRC determine whether events on the ground do in fact meet the criteria “actual or threatened large scale loss of human life or ethnic cleansing”. The primary purpose of the intervention must be to halt or avert human suffering not to overthrow regimes and replace it by authorities’ supported by big powers.

-  In many cases, competing “facts” and versions of events will be produced – often for the specific purpose of leading or misleading external opinion. Obtaining fair and accurate information should be done by the “independent observers of HRC”.

- Moreover, where existence of the conditions that might warrant an intervention for human protection purposes is in question, and time allows, an “independent special fact-finding mission” could be sent by HRC for the purpose of obtaining accurate information and a fair assessment of a particular situation.

- Another job of HRC is to look at whether, and to what extent, the intervention is actually supported by the people for whose benefit the intervention is intended. And to look at whether, and to what extent, the opinion of other countries in the region has been taken into account and is supportive so as not to constitute a basis for destabilizing the region.

- Before military intervention, the HRC should explore that every diplomatic and non-military avenue for the prevention or peaceful resolution of the humanitarian crisis must be explored. The responsibility to react – with military coercion – can only be justified when the responsibility to prevent has been fully discharged.

-  The HRC should monitor the proportionality of the “responsibility to react” and that “The scale, duration and intensity of the planned military intervention should be the minimum necessary to secure the humanitarian objective in question. The means have to be commensurate with the ends, and in line with the magnitude of the original provocation. The effect on the political system of the country targeted should be limited, again, to what is strictly necessary to accomplish the purpose of the intervention(1).

- The HRC must monitor that all the rules of international humanitarian law should be strictly observed in these situations.


C) Changes in the mechanisms of HRC

We suggest also some changes in the mechanisms of HRC to improve its effectiveness and impartiality;

-  it is needed to create an “early warning system” to enhance HRC capacity in providing timely and accurate information to Security Council about human rights abuses.

- To seek assistance and cooperation from INGOs. It must have some extra mechanisms to receive and analyze data information from INGOs and to report it directly to the Security Council.

- To be able to include an issue on the Security Council agenda.

D) Suggestions for more effectiveness of HRC

From the short practice of the council we notice that it was hindered by many obstacles:

- The Council has no criteria for membership other than geographical representation:

This can be solved by adopting strong criteria (the candidate’s human rights record) to prevent human rights abusers from sitting on the new Council.

Members of the Council are elected by an absolute majority of the General Assembly:

A two-thirds requirement would have set a higher hurdle for membership and made it harder for countries with dubious human rights records to win seats on the Council with the intention of undermining the new body from within.

- While the Council is charged with conducting a universal periodic review, the conclusions of the review would not prevent those countries found complicit in human rights violations from participating in the Council. Even if the review finds numerous and serious human rights abuses, neither the Council nor the General Assembly is required to take action, this actually must be changed.

- The Council has a large membership: The Council is only marginally smaller than the previous Commission of human rights, from 53 members to 47.

- In order for the HRC to do the core job in protecting human rights and avert human suffering, it must be an independent small body where the staffs are nominated based on their reputation and their record in the service of human rights, and then they must represent the council not their governments. It must be totally independent of the states, and from the influence of big powers. The staff must represent the organization not their states.

- The names of the staff can be given by the states at regional basis and by the INGOs, to make “bank of names” and then can be picked by “lottery” process.

Conclusion:

The United Nations was created in 1945 above all else “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” - to ensure that the horrors of the World Wars were never repeated. Sixty two years later, we know all too well that the biggest security threats we face now, and in the decades ahead, go far beyond States waging aggressive war. They extend to poverty, infectious disease and environmental degradation; the spread and possible use of nuclear, radiological, chemical and biological weapons; terrorism; and transnational organized crime and above all war and violence within states and abuses of human rights. We notice increased threats from non-State actors as well as States, to human security as well as State security.

Globalization has affected the response to human rights abuses, and the INGOs have succeeded to include many new issues to the international relations like development, environment, women’s rights and human rights in general which lead to many military interventions.

However, the first question that comes to mind about "humanitarian intervention" is whether the category exists. Are states moral agents? Or the case just as Machiavelli, Adam Smith, and a host of others concluded “states commonly act with concern and respect of interests of their domestic power”. A second obvious question has to do with those who are to be in charge of global humanity, and of the respect and progress of human race: what do their institutions and record leads us to expect?  The record of states and international organizations based on states was full of abuses and selectivity of response to human rights catastrophes.

In fact, the media effect had the major influence on interventions because of the increase awareness human rights abuses it made. Television, internet, and all media pictures of starving people, or human rights abuses done by dictators play a major role in interventions, but once the people see the consequences of this intervention in terms of human and soldiers’ losses, the public opinion will force for the withdrawal of troops. This demonstrates that “CNN factor” is double edged sword: it can pressurize governments into humanitarian interventions, yet with equal rapidity, pictures of casualties arriving home can lead to public disillusionment and calls for withdrawal and this is the major problem that faces Bush administration in case of Iraq.

However, the “loud emergencies” of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and famine receive media attention and command limited resources of the international donor community. This conception of humanitarianism is not rooted in objective facts; instead, it is the product of globally dominant beliefs and values which privilege the “loud emergencies” and exclude the silent emergency of slow death through poverty and malnutrition.

An important question can be raised for the future is: why the eradication of global poverty is not as urgent a subject for humanitarian intervention as deaths of those killed by men in uniform with machine guns?

Lots of action must be done for saving humanity. States, international organizations, INGOs, public society…. All must take into consideration that saving lives and the respect of human rights is the main issue for development and security all over the world.


(1) C. A. J. Coady, The Ethics of Armed Humanitarian Intervention, United States Institute of Peace, Peace work No. 45, July 2002,p.20

(2) The Responsibility to Protect, Report of the International Commission on Intervention & State Sovereignty, Dec. 2001,p.1

(3) Charles Krauthammer, “The Short, Unhappy Life of Humanitarian War,” in National Interest, no. 57, fall 1999, p. 8.

(1) John Bailys, the Globalization of World Politics, Oxford University press, New York, 2001, p472.

(2) Sean Murphy, Sovereignty and Intervention: Are International legal Norms Changing? , George Washington University, 2000, p.1.

(1) The Responsibility to Protect, Report of the International Commission on Intervention & State Sovereignty, op. cit, p9.

(2) John Baylis, op cit, p.472.

(3) Sean D. Murphy, Humanitarian Intervention: The United Nations in an Evolving World Order, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1996, p. xix.

(4) Ulrich Beck in Noam Chomsky, The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo, Pluto Press, London, 1999, p. 4.

(1 Nicholas Wheeler, Saving Strangers: Humanitarian Intervention in International Society, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.

(2) Ulrich Beck, ‘the Cosmopolitan Perspective: Sociology of the Second Age of Modernity’, in British Journal of Sociology, London 2000, pp. 79–105.

(3) Axel Honneth, ‘Is Universalism a Moral trap? The Presuppositions and Limits of Human Rights’, in James Bohman and Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, eds, Perpetual peace: Essays on Kant’s cosmopolitanism, The MIT Press, Cambridge,1997, p. 159.

(4)Andrew Linklater, ‘Cosmopolitan Citizenship’, Citizenship Studies, USA, 1998, pp. 23–41.

(5) Lorraine Elliott& Graeme Chessman, Cosmopolitan theory, militaries and the deployment of force ,

Canberra, November 2002, p.3.

(6) Andrew Linklater, The Transformation of Political Community: Ethical Foundations of the post-

Westphalian Era, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998.

(7) Anthony McGrew, ‘Democracy Beyond Borders? Globalization and the Reconstruction of Democratic Theory and Practice’, in Anthony McGrew, ed., the transformation of democracy? The Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1997, p. 252

(8) Graeme Chessman, ‘Defending the “Other”: Military Force(s) and the Cosmopolitan Project’, paper presented to the Chief of Army Land Warfare Conference 2001, Australian Defense Force Academy, 2001: www.google.com.

(1) Danielle Archibugi, ‘Immanuel Kant, Cosmopolitan Law and Peace’, in European Journal of

International Relations, 1995, pp. 429–56.

(2) John Baylis, op.cit, pp472-474.

(3) Jack Goldsmith, “Democracy prudence and intervention”. In www.google.com.

(4) John Baylis, op.cit, pp.472-474.

(5) ibid.

(1) ibid.

(2) H.spruyt, the Sovereign States and its Competitors, Princeton university press, Princeton, 1994,p.324.

(1) A more secure world: Our shared responsibility Report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, United Nations, 2004.

(2) ibid.

(3) ibid.

(1) C.Thomas, Global governance: Development and human security, Pluto, London, 2000.

(2) The responsibility to protect report, op.cit,pp.11-17

(3).ibid.

(1) www.diana.law.yale.edu.

(2) The responsibility to protect report ,op cit,p.18

(3) ibid.pp19-27


(1) ibid. p.29.

(2) ibid., p.39

(1) www.un.org.

(2)  The responsibility to protect report, op. cit.,p.52

(1) ibid.

(1) ibid.


Bibliography

Books:

- Bailys John, the globalization of world politics, oxford university press, New York, 2001,

- Beck Urich, The new military humanism: Lessons from Kosovo, in - Noam Chomsky Ed, Pluto Press, London, 1999.

- Coady C. A. J., The Ethics of Armed Humanitarian Intervention, United States Institute of Peace, Peace works No. 45, July 2002.

- Elliott Lorraine & Graeme Chessman, Cosmopolitan theory, militaries and the deployment of force, Canberra, November 2002.

- Honneth Axel, ‘Is universalism a moral trap? The presuppositions and limits of human rights’, in James Bohman and Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, eds, Perpetual peace: Essays on Kant’s cosmopolitanism, The MIT Press, Cambridge, 1997.

-  Krauthammer Charles, “The Short, Unhappy Life of Humanitarian War,” in National Interest, no. 57, Fall 1999.

- Linklater Andrew, The transformation of political community: Ethical foundations of the post-Westphalian era, Polity Press, Cambridge, 1998.

- Linklater Andrew, ‘Cosmopolitan citizenship’, Citizenship Studies, USA, 1998.

- Murphy Sean, Sovereignty and intervention: Are International legal norms changing, George Washington University, 2000.

- McGrew Anthony, ‘Democracy beyond borders? Globalization and the reconstruction of democratic theory and practice’, in Anthony McGrew, ed., the transformation of democracy? The Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 1997.

- Murphy  Sean D., Humanitarian intervention: The United Nations in an evolving world order, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 1996.

- Spruyt H., the sovereign states and its competitors, Princeton University press, Princeton, 1994.

- Thomas C., Global governance: Development and human security, Pluto, London, 2000.

- Wheeler Nicholas, Saving strangers: Humanitarian intervention in international society, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.

Periodicals:

- Archibugi Daniele, ‘Immanuel Kant, cosmopolitan law and peace’, in European Journal of International Relations, 1995.

- Beck Ulrich, ‘the cosmopolitan perspective: Sociology of the second age of modernity’, in British Journal of Sociology, London 2000.

Reports and internet Sites:

- The responsibility to protect, report of the international commission on intervention & state sovereignty Dec. 2001.

- A more secure world: Our shared responsibility Report of the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, United Nations, 2004.

- www.diana.law.yale.edu.

- Chessman Graeme, ‘Defending the “other”: Military force(s) and the cosmopolitan project’, paper presented to the Chief of Army Land Warfare Conference 2001, ()

Jack Goldsmith, “Democracy prudence and intervention.


Women in Lebanese Elections: Second-Class Citizens  

Leila Nicolas Rahbani

lecture presented at California state university- san bernardino campus, 18Feb. 2010

11/ 07/ 2009

“Give us your vote, and be satisfied with your beauty!” - An appropriate and real-life slogan for the situation in which women in Lebanese politics have found themselves, especially in the recent parliamentary elections. Despite the fact that Lebanese women attained suffrage in 1953, the number of women who have been elected is extremely low. The timid participation of women running for office in the 2009 elections is a discouraging indication to what the future holds for women in Lebanese politics.

During the debate over the reform of the Lebanese electoral law, the political blocs announced their positions regarding the female quota included in the draft bill submitted by the Boutros Commission. All blocs acknowledged the equal right of men and women to hold a seat in parliament; however, most of the parliamentary blocs opposed the principle of a quota. General Michel Aoun, leader of the ‘Reform and Change’ bloc, stated his progressive stance on the matter, although this view was not translated into practice, but rather remained within the framework of public discourse.

General Michel Aoun stated that his bloc refused to vote for the quota because he is for absolute equality between men and women and because the charter of the Free Patriotic Movement stipulates and encourages such equality. Because women make up half of society, then they have the right to be represented by 50 percent of parliament. These words were not translated into practice with regards to women candidates on the lists of the ‘Reform and Change’ bloc, for only one woman was nominated on all these lists that included more than 60 male candidates.

As for the pro-government blocs, despite their repeated public statements on the necessity of equality between men and women, the number of female candidates on their party lists did not exceed three, and those who were nominated were selected on the basis of nepotism, familial political legacies, and martyred relatives.

The ad campaigns of both the opposition and the pro-government blocs tried to draw women to the ballot box. The Free Patriotic Movement turned towards women with the slogan “Be Beautiful and Vote!” which prompted the pro-government blocs to respond with their own ad campaign that stated “Be Equal and Vote!” The campaigns called on women to vote, but they saw no shame in the dismal number of female candidates on their party lists. It is important to note that the 2009 parliamentary elections in Lebanon saw a remarkable response by women at the polls, which means that Lebanese women practice their full duties as citizens, however, they lack their rights, political rights specifically, which turns them effectively into second class citizens.

Firstly – the 2009 Elections: A Dramatic Withdraw of Women

1992 Elections

The 1992 round of elections was marked by a large popular boycott, in which only three women ran for parliament: Nayla Mouwad for the northern district (made possible by the political legacy of her husband President René Mouwad who was assassinated), Maha el Khoury Aasad for the Jbeil district who gained 41 votes, and Bahiya al-Hariri for the southern district who rose up with the clout and support of her brother Rafiq al-Hariri.

The1996 and 2000 Elections

In the 1996 elections, three women won seats in parliament: Nuhad Sa’eed who was born into a political dynasty, Nayla Mouwad, and Bahiya al-Hariri. However, the parliamentary elections that took place in the year 2000 saw an increase in female candidates but most ultimately failed to gain seats in parliament, with the exception of three: Ghenwa Jalloul, Bahiya al-Hariri, and Nayla Mouwad.

The 2005 Elections

The 2005 Elections occurred in the midst of severe political divisions that reflected the delicate and exceptional local and regional circumstances of that period, and saw an extraordinary increase in number of women who entered parliament. The number of female MPs increased to six: Bahiya al-Hariri, Nayla Mouwad, Strida Geagea, Solange al-Gemayel, Ghenwa Jalloul, and Gilberte Zwein.

The 2009 Elections

As for the 2009 elections that just took place, they saw a significant decline in the role of women both in terms of the number of candidates and in terms of electoral victories, in contrast to a remarkable female voter turnout witnessed in most Lebanese regions. By evaluating the election results, we note the following trends:

1 – The number of female MPs decreased by 35 percent in Parliament compared to the year 2005, as the number of female parliamentarians was reduced to four: Nayla Tueni, Bahiya al-Hariri, Strida Geagea of the pro-government blocs, and Gilberte Zwein of the opposition. The ascension of these four female parliamentarians is tied to their political heritages and the influence of their slain relatives. Nayla Tueni is the daughter of the martyr Gibran Tueni. Bahiya al-Hariri is the sister of the martyr Rafiq al-Hariri. Strida Geagea is the wife of the leader of the Lebanese Forces, Samir Geagea, who is unable to run for office. As for Gilberte Zwein, she is the scion of a feudal dynasty in Keserwan.

Three former female parliamentarians stepped down. The Future Movement sought to replace Ghenwa Jalloul with the Islamic Group’s candidate in Beirut, Imad al-Hout. Solange al-Gemayel, the wife of slain President Bashir al-Gemayel, relinquished her seat in the interest of her son, Nadim. Likewise, Nayla Mouwad, the widow of former president René Mouwad, withdrew from parliament in an attempt to turn her seat over to her son Michel, who lost in the elections.

2 – The level of women’s participation as candidates in the parliamentary elections dropped from 34 women in the 2000 elections to just 14 women in the 2005 rounds, i.e. to just 3.5 percent of the number of candidates, ending up at 12 women in the 2009 parliamentary elections, less than two percent of candidates.

3 – Women’s voter turnout exceeded that of men. A comparison of voter turnout in the rounds that saw a heated and extremely politicized electoral battle indicates that Lebanese women are no less politically active or enthusiastic than men. For instance, in Zahle 60 percent of women voted compared to 56 percent of men, whereas the rates in the western Beka’a and Rachaiya districts were as follows: 58 percent of women versus 49 percent of men. The two genders were on a par in the northern Metn district with 55 percent turnout on each side. As for the Beirut 1 district, female voter turnout, unlike the situation in most other districts, was less than that of males, since 40 percent of women voted versus 41 percent of men.

Secondly – Obstacles to Women Gaining Seats in Parliament

The experience of Lebanese parliamentary elections demonstrated a number of factors that hindered the ability of Lebanese women to gain authority, the most important of which are:

- The male chauvinistic mentality held by most politicians and leaders of the parliamentary blocs. Most party leaders hold a view that women are inferior, and they limit the presence of women to the second and third ranks of the parties and refrain from appointing women to positions within their inner circles even if her aptitude and her superiority over her male peers is clearly demonstrated.

- The sectarian electoral law, the costs of nomination and media campaigns, in addition to the rigid party alignments that are impenetrable by independent male and female candidates.

- The absence of a general policy or legislation that encourages women to participate in the political arena, and the absence of laws that mandate party lists to include female candidates.

- The weak role of non-governmental organizations and their inability to form a strong and effective lobbying force to change the general negative trends towards the position of women within political power structures.

- The absence of targeted public awareness campaigns aimed at encouraging women to participate in public life and the political sphere.

- Family education, which gives preference to males and the authoritarian relationship within the family, whereby the man is always the boss.

- Families, generally, do not encourage women to engage in politics or get involved with political parties and trade unions.

- Societal and cultural values, including religious ones, which make the role of women primarily in the management of family affairs, the care and upbringing of children, as well as the service of their husbands and household management. Whereas the role of men goes beyond the borders of this realm and includes the public arena, such as entry into the work place, management of finances, and involvement in public affairs and the political arena.

- The personal character of women, their behavior and personal circumstances, which are reflected in a lack of confidence in themselves and their fellow women. - The lack of awareness of their political rights, lack of a general conviction in the importance of participation in public life, including political decision-making, as well as the lack of enthusiasm on the part of most women for plunging into a battle to wrest power and leadership from men and to end their economic dependence on them.