The Status Quo

Where the international legal system can’t have much impact on abuse, the policy of states that are
willing protectors of human rights could play a special role. Governments in these states are willing to
invest substantial resources in protecting human rights abroad. Often these states also face strong
public pressure at home from human rights organizations, religious groups, and other groups to use
their power in this way.

Humanitarian intervention is the use of military force by one state against another where the main,
explicitly stated goal of the military operation is to put an end to human rights abuses being committed
by the target state.

Codification is the process of compiling and repeating a jurisdiction's laws in particular areas, usually by
topic, into an organized body of law, such as a codex or book of laws. Codification is a crucial component
of civil law systems. In common law systems, such as the English legal system, the method of converting
judge-made law into statutory law is known as codification. Countries with a civil law system must use
codification.

Customary Law

The State, subject to the provisions of this Constitution and national development policies and
programs, shall protect the rights of indigenous cultural communities to their ancestral lands to ensure
their economic, social, and cultural well-being.
The Congress may provide for the applicability of customary laws governing property rights or relations
in determining the ownership and extent of ancestral domain.

Article 2(7) of the UN Charter: ‘Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the
United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of
any state’.  Article 2(4) of the UN Charter: ‘All members shall refrain in their international
relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political
independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the
United Nations’.  Unless in self-defense (Article 51), military action requires authorization by
the Security Council under its Chapter VII powers to maintain international peace and security.