6 mondial
DECEMBER 2012
Responsibility to protect
How to implement R2P? Still controversial
This article is based on a report by Andrew Coleman for the Parliamentary Group for Genocide Prevention. At the United Nations, the ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) is understood primarily as a doctrine for the prevention of mass atrocities: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. The commitment to uphold R2P is classified in terms of three “pillars”: • Pillar one: the state’s primary responsibility to protect civilians. • Pillar two: The international community’s responsibility to assist states in fulfilling these civilian protection responsibilities. • Pillar three: If a state is manifestly failing to protect its populations, the international community should take appropriate collective action, in a timely and decisive manner and in accordance with the UN Charter. This includes the use of diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means to protect civilian populations from these crimes. As a last resort, or in situations of imminent peril, timely and decisive action may also include the use of force. In preparation for the 2012 UN General Assembly debate on the ‘responsibility to protect’, Canada’s all-party parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity (GPG) and the World Federalist Movement – Canada jointly sponsored a meeting on “The International Community’s Capacity for Timely and Decisive Action.”
The meeting, chaired by Senator Roméo Dallaire, took place May 30 in Ottawa. Participants – parliamentarians and staff from the GPG, civil society representatives, and officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade – were joined by two expert panelists who spoke on initiatives central to the timely and decisive implementation of R2P: – His Excellency Piragibe dos Santos Tarrago, Ambassador of Brazil to Canada, provided an overview of the Brazilian initiative ‘responsibility while protecting,’ and – Dr. Simon Adams, Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, New York, discussed the growing acceptance of the R2P normative framework and the Global Centre’s “Focal Points Initiative.” The meeting also included a discussion of Canadian policy, its historical commitment to the prevention and elimination of mass atrocities, and the general perception of more recent Canadian reticence towards efforts to advance R2P. From an international perspective, this reticence is puzzling, as R2P is widely considered as a non-partisan initiative. While there is wide consensus on the general principles of R2P, the detail regarding how these commitments are operationalized is still controversial. Consequently, there was considerable interest in an initiative of the government of Brazil. ‘Responsibility while protecting’ is intended to develop in greater detail the conceptual and operational
framework of the responsibility to protect. Underlying the Brazilian initiative is the desire to avoid a situation where the use of force causes more harm than the initial dangers that it was intended to address. It rests on the principles that the use of force must be judicious, limited and proportionate. The initiative also asks for accountability, pointing to the need for enhanced UN Security Council procedures to monitor and assess the implementation of R2P mandates. R2P ‘focal points’ are senior government officials mandated to enable national efforts to improve mass-atrocity prevention and response. In a June 6 article in Embassy under the headline “Canada should appoint a ‘focal point’ for atrocity prevention,” Dr. Adams discussed how it is up to “each government… to identify for themselves where best to place the focal point, but the ideal appointment is a senior government official who can not only ring alarm bells within government in a loud, clear, and precise fashion, but also has the gravitas to be able to mobilize their government to respond…” The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect is working in partnership with the Stanley Foundation and the UN Missions from Australia, Costa Rica, Denmark, and Ghana, to expand the number of R2P focal points appointed by national governments and to link them within a global network designed to facilitate international co-operation and co-ordination in pursuit of protection-focused objectives. To date, 20 governments have joined the focal points network.
“While there is wide consensus on the general principles of R2P, the detail regarding how these commitments are operationalized is still controversial.”