Rising incidents of genocide, crimes against humanity and massive violations of human rights require better responses of the global community, but with due regard for national sovereignty.

Foreign Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar said humanitarian intervention has become necessary with increased human security concerns, more so since globalisation has made such issues borderless.

"The protection of human life and the promotion of human dignity should not only be the preserve of domestic governments; the international community too has a role and responsibility to play in this regard," he noted when opening the International Conference on Human Security yesterday.

While advocating improved responses to human security, Malaysia upholds the principle of non-interference.

"A regime's systematic violation of (human) rights does not constitute grounds for the violation of national sovereignty through invasion or destabilisation."

He said human intervention should be balanced with territorial sovereignty in that each state should respects laws and political decisions of others.

"Those actions must be in accordance with the (United Nations) Charter principle of respect for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states."

Open to abuse

Syed Hamid pointed out the fear that human security could be used as an excuse to legitimise the overuse of humanitarian intervention and that this could lead to potential abuse.

"A concept as broad as that of responsibility to protect is subjective and open to abuse, in particular given the current penchant of the major powers to assert their power rather than champion principles."

"There remain a whole range of questions - legal, moral, operational and political - constituting the debate around humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect.

"Our involvement must be premised on the basis of consultations and co-operation through the United Nations, taking into principles of international law."

In the case of Malaysia, he cited development - not intervention - as the key to resolving issues linked to human security.

"At the heart of our policy (has been) the need to distribute the benefits of economic growth equitably in order to overcome potentially dangerous national schisms," he said.

"We have operationalised the concept of growth in the 9th Malaysia Plan with human capital development at its core."

The two-day conference, which ends today, is jointly organised by the Institute of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Thoughts and the International Committee of the Red Cross.