Il paradigma dei diritti umani per le missioni di sicurezza umana dell’UE. Il contributo del Rapporto di Barcellona

Human Rights Mainstreaming for the Human Security Missions of the European Union. The Barcelona Report’s Input

Marco Mascia

The current debate on the old principle of responsibility to protect those peoples and groups which are the victim of gross human rights violations, aim at meeting new and complex challenges. But many questions are still waiting for an answer: whether it is legitimate, and to what extent, to use force to settle international conflicts, which is the pertinent chapter of international law to refer to, who would be eligible for authorising military interventions, under which authority and command such operations should be carried out, etc. The truly new lies mainly in the fact that to respond to those questions we do not start from scratch. We can take advantage from materials that address in a specific way the matter and are provided by the United Nations, the European Union, independent expert groups. The recent United Nations military intervention in Lebanon is worth considering as a strong signal of discontinuity, even as a break with military operations carried out in the Nineties in Somalia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and at the beginning of 2000 in Afghanistan and Iraq. The UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (2006) proves that the UNO reamains the multilateral institution that is ennential and unavoidable to maintain international peace and security.

Thanks also to the comprehensive and coherent document A Secure Europe in a Better World. The European Security Strategy of 2003, the European Union is actively – and with full rights – participating in the ongoing process of elucidating ideas, principles and methods. This contributes to provide a larger humancentric horizon to both the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and to European Security and the European Security and Defense Policy (ESDP). The 2004 Report A Human Security Doctrine for Europe. The Barcelona Report of the Study Group on Europe’s Security Capabilities, the UE his giving a fundamental contribution to further highlight the human rights mainstreaming in peace operations.