NATO intervention in Kosovo and the transition of "humaniatarian intervention" into "responsibility to protect"

After collapse of SFRY, civil war started in 1998-1999 between Yugoslav forces and Kosovar Albanian guerilla fighters, KLA. Ethnic cleansing and increasing violence against Kosovar Albanians by Serbian security and police forces, together with attacks by KLA caused 78-days-length NATO intervention started in March 24, 1999. The intervention argued to be humanitarian motivated had started as an affect of the regret of being remained silent to the genocide occurred in Rwanda in 1994. Moreover, international society which was criticized for being late to the ethnic cleansing in Srebrenica in 1995 activated in order to prevent same situations in Kosovo. However, the use of force lawfully requiring UN Security Council's (UNSC) approval according to article 51 of UN Charter had made without referring approval and this increased the present discussions on the concept of "humanitarian intervention" which had not become a rule of international law. In this study, first of all, it is explained the concept of "humanitarian intervention" in order to reveal the deficiencies of the concept. Followingly, after presenting the historical background of Kosovo that ended in war, the 1998-1999 Kosovo War and NATO's intervention are asserted. Together with examining the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) Report created after 1999 NATO intervention in Kosovo in order to eliminate the mentioned deficiencies of humanitarian intervention, it is put forth the clear criterion of RtoP. In the end, by applying those criterion to 1999 NATO's intervention in Kosovo, it is showed the effects of this intervention's deficencies to the creation of RtoP to form more explicit rules. Key Words: humanitarian intervention, Kosovo, NATO, UN, responsibility to protect, RtoP