R2P: From Idea to Norm—and Action?

Abstract

The most dramatic normative development of our time-comparable to the Nuremberg trials and the 1948 Convention on Genocide in the immediate aftermath of World War II-relates to the 'responsibility to protect', the title of the 2001 report from the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. It no longer is necessary to finesse the tensions between sovereignty and human rights in the UN Charter; they can now be confronted because sovereignty no longer implies the license to kill. This essay outlines the origins of the R2P idea, describes the background factors in the 1990s that paved the way for the advancement of this norm by norm entrepreneurs, champions, and brokers. It continues with an account of the process by which the ICISS arrived at its landmark report, a description of the sustained engagement with the R2P agenda from 2001, when the ICISS report was published, to its adoption at the 2005 World Summit. The essay concludes with a sketch of the tasks and challenges that lie ahead to move R2P from a norm to a template for policy and action.

The Development and Evolution of R2P as International Policy

“…Secretary‐General Kofi Annan played a key role in the development of R2P as a global norm (Thakur and Weiss, , pp. 33–34).…”

“…According to Australian international law professor Anne Orford (, p. 41), R2P ‘represents one of the most significant normative shifts in international relations since the creation of the UN in 1945’. Thakur, a commissioner and co‐author of its report (Evans and Thakur, , p. 199) and Weiss, the research director of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) have claimed that ‘no idea has moved faster in the international normative arena than the “responsibility to protect”’ (Thakur and Weiss, , p. 23). In terms of its current status, R2P has an institutional home within the UN in the form of a Joint Office that includes the special advisers on genocide prevention (Adama Dieng) and R2P (Jennifer Welsh).…”

A Fool's Errand? The Next Secretary‐General and United Nations Reform

“…Hammarskjöld was particularly adept at leveraging crises, like the holding of US airmen by China (1954), or the Suez crisis (1956), using them to implement novel ways to intervene and to assert the independence of the UN's civil service (Urquhart, ). Annan seized on the Security Council's paralysis during the 1999 Kosovo conflict to put humanitarian intervention on the membership's agenda, and he cajoled a few likeminded governments to finance an independent commission that would ultimately propose the Responsibility to Protect (Thakur and Weiss, ).…”

Misrepresenting R2P and Advancing Norms: An Alternative Spiral?

“…This report details “three pillars” as the approach for implementing R2P, which includes the protection responsibilities of individual states, international assistance and capacity‐building, and timely and decisive international responses (United Nations 2009). Thakur and Weiss (2009:22) have dubbed the cumulative impact as “the most dramatic normative development of our time.”…”