In the preceding two chapters we have shown where and why human rights have been violated, focusing in particular on the right to physical integrity. We have seen that human rights continue to be violated around the globe, and that the risk of such violations increases when governments face a real, or perceived, threat and when they assume that they won't be held accountable for their actions. In the third part of this book, we focus our attention on how human rights violations might be halted once they are under way, and what challenges lie in dealing with the aftermath of gross human rights violations.

The first chapter in Part III focuses on military intervention as a means of ending widespread human rights violations, while the second chapter examines attempts to rebuild society and to establish transitional justice in the wake of repression. There are, of course, other measures that states undertake in an effort to put an end to continuing atrocities in other lands, including economic sanctions and diplomatic negotiation. However, military intervention represents the most serious and committed response, and it is for this reason that we focus on this practice. On the other hand, there have been a number of problems associated with humanitarian intervention, and in the second half of this chapter we examine the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) initiative that places military intervention in a much broader context of state responsibility.