Sixty years after the adoption of the Genocide Convention by the UN General Assembly, and following failure to prevent more atrocities in Rwanda, Srebrenica and Darfur, the international community took important steps to clarifying how threats of genocide and mass atrocities should be tackled within and across national boundaries.
In 2005, world leaders endorsed a new doctrine called the ‘Responsibility to Protect’, which is designed to provide a moral and legal framework for the international community to guide their response to mass atrocities committed both within and beyond their own borders. Key to the doctrine of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ is that if a state defaults on its responsibility to protect its citizens then it is the role of the international community to assume the responsibility collectively. This is based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege which states are entitled to, but a responsibility they must earn.
According to this doctrine, individual states have responsibility to protect their own citizens, and to help other states build their capacity to do so. International organisations, including the UN, have the responsibility to generate effective prevention strategies and mobilize active intervention when appropriate. Civil society groups and individuals also have responsibilities under the doctrine: responsibilities to advocate in favour of those at risk from or suffering mass atrocities, raising their interests in the agenda of policy-makers.
‘Responsibility to Protect’ involves three related commitments: a responsibility to prevent, to react and to rebuild. Prevention takes a primary role. Prevention is aimed at through measures such as building state capacity, remedying grievances and ensuring the rule of law. Prevention is dependent on addressing the root causes of conflicts and to work in a spirit of constructive engagement with national governments, so as to be in a position to take early action before their position hardens. For this reason, Aegis Students focuses a great deal of their work on tackling the mindsets that allow genocide to occur. Aegis Students believes that through enabling students to think in a global perspective, we can foster tolerance within students, their schools and their communities.
However, if prevention fails then ‘Responsibility to Protect’ requires that whatever measures are necessary to prevent or abate mass atrocities are taken; these could include economic, legal or military actions, amongst others.
Just Words?
In the months following the 2005 World Summit, there was some optimism that the worldwide endorsement of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ might lead to an improved international response to the worsening humanitarian situation in Darfur. However, whilst a number of Security Council Resolutions on Sudan have made reference to the ‘Responsibility to Protect’, it does not appear to have had any serious impact upon the power politics being played at the UN Security Council level. Since 2005, the Security Council has only made select references to R2P. The first, which was secured with considerable support from the UK, was in the Security Council Resolution 1674 on the Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict, which was unanimously adopted on 28 April 2006. UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon has since appointed a Special Adviser on the ‘Responsibility to Protect’, Professor Edward Luck. Luck works closely with Francis Deng, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. However, it is as yet unclear what the impact of this role has been on the status of ‘Responsibility to Protect’.
The international endorsement of ‘Responsibility to Protect’ was not the end of the process of improved international justice, only the beginning. Now comes the hard part: putting the concept into practice. Over the coming months Aegis Students will be focusing on how we can ensure that the doctrine has a tangible impact on the lives of civilians in peril.
For a further discussion of R2P and its impact in the global arena see the short film Moving from Words to Action: The Responsibility to Protect. Here, a distinguished panel including Lt. Gen Roméo Dallaire, Rt Hon Clare Short MP, John Bercow MP and Dr Mukesh Kapila, discuss how R2P should be translated into policy action.
Further resources:
Website of the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect: http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/
Website of The International Crisis Group, an independent, NGO committed to preventing and resolving deadly conflict: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=4521
The United Nations and the Responsibility to Protect: http://www.ipacademy.org/asset/file/373/UNROP.pd
For more information about any of our campaigns related to international justice, please contact our National Coordinator.
