Responsibility to Protect (R2P)

The Responsibility to protect (R2P) was adopted as a norm at the United Nations World Summit in 2005.  The responsibility to protect refers to the obligation of sates towards their populations, and towards all populations at risk of genocide and other mass atrocities.

Genocide

Genocide is defined in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of genocide

(1948) as “any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy , in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; imposing measures intended  to prevent births within the group; [and] forcing transferring children of the group to another group.” More information is available at www.genocide.org.

The World Federation of United Nations Associations (WFUNA) has developed the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) program to engage and encourage civil society to mobilize a public voice that pushes for political will to prevent and act in the face of mass atrocities.

The R2P ensures that states are obligated to protect their citizens against genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and other mass atrocities.

The R2P operates in three phases and these are referred to as pillars and they include;

Pillar 1: sates have an obligation and carry the primary responsibility to protect their citizens from mass atrocities.

Pillar 2: The International Community has the responsibility to assist states in building their capacity to fulfill this responsibility to prevent mass atrocities before, during and after conflict.

Pillar 3: if the state in question fails to act appropriately, the International Community has the responsibility, the responsibility to do so in the timely and decisive matter either diplomatically, humanitarianly, peacefully and as a large resort by stronger measures falls on to a larger community of states.

The R2P works on the premise of other three additional elements:

a) The responsibility to prevent: The obligation to prevent mass atrocities, develop early warning systems and address the root causes of conflicts.

b) The responsibility to react: A commitment of measures which should be taken in the face of mass atrocities.

c) The responsibility to rebuild: The obligation of the international community post intervention to rebuild and prevent the reoccurrence of mass atrocities.