Does the international community have the right to intervene in sovereign States in order to put an end to serious human rights violations? Discuss. Humanitarian intervention is certainly one of the most controversial topics of recent decades, among states, international organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academia. The center of the debate is the conflict between traditional principles of state sovereignty and newly adopted norms on the use of force for humanitarian purposes. Despite political controversies between countries, humanitarian intervention is now an international norm that calls for action whenever serious and life-threatening events occur in any country. In 2001, the ICISS (International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty) - supported by the Canadian government - presented a report that would advance the concept of humanitarian intervention towards a "responsibility to protect" (or "R2P) . The ICISS report refers to the “right of humanitarian intervention” as “coercive – and in particular military – action against another state with the aim of protecting people in danger in that other state” (ICISS, 2001 , p. vii). Political will, disagreements within the international community or excessive rationality regarding the costs of intervention have caused terrible atrocities - which took the form of genocide or ethnic cleansing - which cost lives to millions of people (Power, 2011; J. Bajorja & R. McMahon, 2013). The new humanitarian intervention doctrine “Responsibility to Protect” is adopted by the United Nations as a necessary means to prevent and punish atrocities. However, some state actors, such as China and Russia, contest its implementation. I argue that it is very important to save the inter...... middle of article ......reviews .Power, S. (2011) . Spectators of the genocide. The Atlantic Monthly, 84-108. Roth, K. (2004). War in Iraq: not a humanitarian intervention. Human Rights Watch. SN Macfarlane, C.J Thielking and T.G Weiss. (2004). The Responsibility to Protect: Does Anyone Care About Human Intervention? Third World Quarterly, 977-992. Secretary General, U. (February 15, 2002). Secretary-General addresses International Peace Academy seminar on Responsibility to Protect. UN document SG/SM/8125. Selfa, L. (2002). A new colonial “age of empire”? International Socialist Review. Traub, J. (February 18, 2012). The end of American intervention. New York Times. (1648). Treaty of Westphalia. International Relations and Security Network. Secretary General of the United Nations. (1999). Report of the Secretary-General on the activities of the Organization, A/54/1. The United Nations.