International Law and the Responsibility to Protect

For the past several years, international scholars and practitioners have recognized the notion of the responsibility to protect within the broad concept of human security. In 2009, Ban Ki-moon submitted a report on implementing the responsibility to protect, 1 which was endorsed by the UN General Assembly. In September 2009, a major thematic debate took place at the General Assembly to consider the relevance of the notion of the responsibility to protect in a contemporary international context. The task involved discussions on the criteria for appropriate action. Since the Kosovo crisis in 1999, the international community has been involved in an extensive debate concerning the legal basis of “timely and decisive responses.” The notion of the responsibility to protect relates to the international law permitting the international community to act in order to carry out its “responsibility.” However, as Ban Ki-moon explained in his report, though such actions might be the most visible and dramatic instruments in the responsibility to protect repertoire, they are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Secretary-General’s 2010 report on the responsibility to protect focused on early warning and assessment. This report called for early engagement and a balanced and dynamic understanding of the evolving conditions on the ground in each situation. Additionally, in 2011, Ban Ki-moon submitted a report on the role of regional and sub-regional arrangements in implementing the responsibility to protect. Recently, a stronger emphasis has been placed on the responsibility to prevent significant crimes from occurring in the first place. The second pillar, providing assistance to states that lack the capacity to protect populations, offers promising opportunities to improve the implementation of the responsibility to protect. Alex Bellamy pointed out that a system of early warning, which is a core component of the responsibility to protect, should identify potential crises before they escalate, creating an important new window of opportunity for preventive action. In this paper, I would like to discuss the evolving nature of the notion of the responsibility to protect