Recently, the United States has continued its historical streak of invading Middle Eastern countries by launching two air strikes at terrorist camps in Pakistan this past January killing approximately 20 suspected terrorists.(Washington post.com) When we speak of human rights we often think of individual rights, like the right to life, to food, or to shelter. However, we often neglect to mention collective rights, like a country’s right to maintain its sovereignty unless its people are intentionally being persecuted. In Pakistan’s case, sovereignty was violated by the US because the US took military measures (launching the missile strikes) on pakistani territory which is a democratically elected state not intentionally persecuting its inhabitants therefore they had no official mandate to go in. But one must ask whether or not this violation of a collective right stopped the violation of several human rights.

Pakistan has recently been under a very unstable government, as it came out of a military dictatorship under President Muscharraf, and slowly gravitated towards a democratic government under the direction of Benazir Bhutto, who was recently assassinated. (“CTV.ca Pakistan Seeks deal to quell political crisis”) Bhutto’s husband, an infamous crook and evidently a corrupt man accused and found guilty of a kickback scam with a Swiss company as well as accused but not found guilty of killing his wife’s brother, was then elected to power.  Since there was a democratic election and the people of Pakistan are not directly being persecuted, technically the US had no right to intervene in Pakistani territory and violate National Sovereignty, but did they have a moral responsibility? It would not be the first time that the americans have violated national sovereignty on the grounds of having moral responsibility, they have previously provided sustained military assistance to pakistan, which is not necessarily considered violating national sovereignty, however,  they have invaded by force Afghanistan and Iraq. What is particular about Pakistan is this would be the first time that the US invades a democracy in the middle east. (“BBC News South Asia Country Profiles Pakistan”)

The terrorist camps of Pakistan are mainly Al Qaeda, supported by what is now a weaker Taliban. These terrorist camps pose a direct threat to Afghanistan, which is Pakistan’s neighbor. They also pose a threat to Pakistan and neighboring countries such as Pakistan’s long standing enemy, India. In Mumbai bombings that were ordered by the pakistani based terrorist camps  took place. (“Pakistan’s border Badlands are a challenge for the next president- US News and World Report”)  Moreover, the area where these terrorist camps are located is the extremely mountainous border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan called Waziristan, and the terrorists have been preventing the flow of basic supplies to the region causing a humanitarian crisis.

On the one hand, the Pakistani people do not always support the US and therefore may become very unhappy if the US invades their country, which would be a source of instability. The threat of these Pakistani based terrorist camps is too great to ignore, though.(“BBC News South Asia Pakistan Rejects US Strike Report”) So what to do to prevent the abuse of human rights such as the right to life which could be endangered for all surrounding countries if nuclear weapons fall into the wrong hands, and the right to basic supplies which is being cut off to the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan? If Pakistan is incapable of intervening, then the US could provide them with military supplies to get the job done, which would allow the Pakistani government to maintain sovereignty and therefore stability while reducing the threat of terrorists but this solution is slightly more complex, in order to allow the India Pakistan conflict to remain ‘fair’ the US would also have to supply India with weapons to avoid ‘tipping of the scales’. If Pakistan simply does not want to stop the terrorists, then the US could use diplomatic leverage to push Pakistan towards action. Either way this is a complex and volatile situation that, if not dealt with appropriately, could lead to an even greater violation of many human rights.