Humanitarian Intervention as a Perfect Duty. A Kantian Argument

The article examines a Kantian argument that there is a strict moral duty to intervene when fundamental human rights are violated. I analyze this duty as comprising two complementary duties, to protect the victims and to coerce the wrongdoer, and defend it by appealing to Kant’s conception of respect for humanity. Contrary to common practice, I argue that these are matter of justice, not of mercy.But a moral case for the duty of armed intervention to protect fundamental human rights should not be confused with a legal case. To claim that there is a moral requirement to intervene is not to claim that there is a legal (and legally sanctioned) requirement to do so. Neither argument yet establishes who has the proper authority to intervene. The duty applies to the universal moral community as such and therefore is everybody’s responsibility. Because this duty concerns the international community as a whole, it should be discharged by that community by institutionalizing its responsibility.