Sovereignty as Responsibility

The concept of ‘sovereignty as responsibility’ is without question one of the foundations for the concept of the responsibility to protect (R2P). As United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon observed in 2008, R2P is built on the ‘positive and affirmative concept of sovereignty as responsibility—a concept developed by . . . Francis Deng, and his colleagues at the Brookings Institution more than a decade ago’. This chapter discusses how the concept of sovereignty as responsibility developed from discussions about governance in Africa and from the application of human rights standards to the protection of internally displaced persons. It also identifies the differences in emphasis, scope, and usage between the concept and R2P.