Humanitarian interventions: does the end justify the means? The case of Libya.

Abstract

This bachelor thesis has researched whether the end of protecting human rights justifies the means of humanitarian intervention in the case of Libya 2011, according to the most prominent authors on humanitarian interventions. By distinguishing these authors in 1) the unfavourable disposed school, and 2) the critically favourable disposed school, a new categorization of schools of thought was made. On the basis of these schools of thought, this thesis has analysed whether the end of protecting human rights justifies the means of humanitarian intervention in the case of Libya. According to the unfavourable disposed school, this intervention could not be justified. The critically favourable disposed school does justify this intervention, although it has critical remarks on the execution of this intervention.