when what is at stake is the bare survival or the minimal liberty of ( some substantial number of ) its members ” ( 2015 : 101 ). If the citizens of a state are under attack from their own government , very often the only protection those citizens can appeal to is that of the international community - in the form of foreign armies . In these extreme cases too , our moral obligation to protect human rights is likely to be achievable only by military force ( Walzer , 2015 : 106 ). Human rights trump sovereignty rights because they allow no exceptions . Luban characterised them as rights that give rise to corresponding “ demands of all of humanity on all of humanity ” ( 1980 : 174 ). An American may have a moral duty to aid an Austrian , not because the Austrian is Austrian but because they are both human . Supposedly , as Tesón argues , it is a “ major purpose ” of every government to protect human rights within their own territory ( 2003 : 93 ). When a government not only fails to do so , but is actively engaged in violations , it must be incumbent on a wider international
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community to take over that duty themselves . Arguably , international law should be reformed to recognise that human rights violations by a national government against its subjects constitutes a crime of aggression , as any war between two national governments would ( Tesón , 2003 : 103 ).
Some philosophers reply to the liberal view with a charge that while human rights are inherently valuable , it does not follow that we should intervene in other countries to protect them ( Caney , 2005 : 231 ). Naïve democratic governments could commit grave and damaging military action even with a purely humanitarian intention . Kutz ( 2014 : 244 ) argues that no matter how bad a particular government may be , intervening to stop its crimes could yet be worse . This may be true , but it is an argument more for placing conditions on humanitarian intervention , rather than an argument against the obligation to protect human rights in itself . A failure to intervene can exacerbate problems . Non-intervention is not a benign act : it is
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