The Committee for Humanitarian Intervention (CHI) was founded in December 2004 to call for the protection of people who cannot defend themselves, in cases when military means are absolutely necessary to save and protect them. We find it unacceptable that defenceless people are massacred, tortured, repressed and treated inhumanely, like in more recent history in places like Sudan (Darfur), Syria and Myanmar (Rohingya) – or wherever and whenever. We observe in many cases a lack of interest in the Netherlands and other Western countries to act on a true responsibility to protect defenceless people. We thus support interventions to prevent, halt or at least curtail grave crimes against humanity – by military means if necessary if peaceful means turn out to be impossible or insufficient – such as:[1]
- genocide and other types of systematic murder against groups in society;
- aggression of states against other states when the aggressor commits most of the atrocities and the attacked state lacks the means to defend itself;
- other kinds of extreme injustice like terrorism against civilians, slavery, ethnic cleansing, largescale mistreatment, systematic torture and rape.
[1] See esp. International Criminal Court (ICC) Rome Statute, Artt.5-8.
Membership dues of € 40/ US $ 40/£ 40 per year (€ 20/ US$ 20/£ 20 for students and those with a limited budget), or donations and gifts for CHI can be sent to: Bank account NL 80 ASNB 0785 945326 BIC: ASNB NL21 Dordrecht, the Netherlands
