United Kingdom Outlines its Position on Humanitarian Intervention and Responsibility to Protect (January 14, 2014) [1]
On January 14, 2014, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office submitted an official response [3] to questions posed by the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee “regarding the United Kingdom’s position on humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect.” In the response, the government articulated its position that “intervention may be permitted under international law in exceptional circumstances where the UN Security Council is unwilling or unable to act in order to avert a humanitarian catastrophe subject to . . . three conditions.” These conditions require that that there is evidence of “extreme humanitarian distress on a large scale,” that there is “no practicable alternative to the use of force,” and that the proposed use of force is “necessary and proportionate.”