New Report: In whose name? A critical view on the Responsibility to Protect

"In whose name? A critical view on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)” provides an overview of the history and content of R2P, its positive contributions and its flaws. It concludes that R2P does not give a satisfying answer to the key question it is supposed to address: how best to prevent and, if prevention fails, respond to large-scale human rights violations and killings? The concept is particularly dangerous as it amalgamates arguments and proposals, mixing uncontroversial and widely accepted notions (that states have a responsibility towards their citizens) with more dubious claims (that military intervention is an appropriate tool to protect civilians).

The concept of the “Responsibility to Protect (R2P)” is one of the ideas that have evolved the fastest in the contemporary international normative arena. R2P affirms that states and governments do not only have a right to sovereignty, but also a responsibility to protect their populations, and that the international community must take action when states fail to uphold this responsibility.

R2P has quickly moved up the ladder of international law, from an emerging idea in the late 1990s to its official formulation over the turn of the century. At the same time, skeptics and critics have raised concerns about the concept, arguing that it is a veil for selfinterested interventions by major powers and a threat to international peace and security.

Rather than building a last resort option – military intervention – for when all else fails, there is a dire need to devote attention and energy to prevention and to ensuring that the international system does not fail to begin with. Existing legal instruments and institutions for crisis prevention and management fulfill many of the functions of R2P without undermining the principles of peaceful dispute settlement or the equal sovereignty of states. The report ends with an overview of alternatives that deserve more reflection and action.

The report on the concept of a Responsibility to Protect (R2P) by Lou Pingeot and Wolfgang Obenland is a joint publication of Global Policy Forum and Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung—New York Office.

In whose name? is available for download here.