Madam Speaker, the hon. member asks if there is under international law an exception for the invasion of a sovereign state. That is the essence of the question, as I would understand it.
The theory is that when a sovereign state commits either ethnic cleansing or genocide on a portion or all of its population, therefore, it is a humanitarian exception under international law which entitles us to intervene. I would be concerned that if we go down that path we would put into question the whole concept of sovereignty.
I would point to an article which appeared in the Globe and Mail on the weekend in which Marcus Gee quotes Woodrow Wilson from 1918 concerning the principle of self-determination for a nation of peoples. Secretary of State Robert Lansing was aghast. The phrase, Lansing said in a private memo, was simply loaded with dynamite.
It is my view that international law, when it comes to intervention on humanitarian grounds, in a situation such as this, cries out for intervention. However, I am loath to engage that as a precedent and would want to very carefully nuance an answer to that, which I am not sure I am going to be able to do.