What Does Sovereignty Mean to You?

So why do Arab leaders seems to eager to rally around indicted war criminal and all-around mean guy, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir?

According to Khalid Medani, a political scientist at McGill University interviewed by the Christian Science Monitor:

"The fact that other countries, including Israel, have not been subjected to this kind of decision is a natural source of opposition for most – but not all – Arab countries."

Ok, I can see how that could rub one the wrong way, though still not a valid excuse to ignore what's going on under your own nose. But even more, the issue of national self-preservation seems to be at the crux of the matter:

"The issue of national sovereignty is a key principle of post-colonial states in general," he says.

No. National sovereignty is not a free pass to govern anyway any ruler so desires, be he/she/it/they democrat or despot.

This is, in fact, the basic premise of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine: A government's duty is to protect its people, but when it fails to do so, that responsibility then falls on the international community --- to fail to protect, and even more, to commit crimes against humanity against ones own citizens is an abdication of the right to national sovereignty.

Self-preservation of a government should not come at the cost of the destruction of its people. Sovereignty is not an all-protective shield that allows a government to commit genocide.