‘Responsibility to Protect’: A New Manual for Peace?

[Jacaylbaro]

Gareth Evans, International Crisis Group president, has launched his book ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) in Brussels and UNPO was present to gauge its reception.

 

Below is an article written by UNPO:

 

7 October 2008, Brussels – Gathering at the international Press Center in Brussels, UNPO joined other NGOs, press, and officials for the launch in Europe of Gareth Evans’ book, ‘Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All’.

 

Mr. Evans, one of the driving forces behind the emergence of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, was joined on a panel by Ms. Emma Bonino and Mr.Joschka Fischer who each took the opportunity to comment briefly on the book and the state of the R2P doctrine in the world today.

 

Mr. Evans developed their references using recent case studies that, in his opinion, showed some of the confusion over the correct application and implementation of the R2P doctrine. Spanning continents, each case study showed the wide applicability of the R2P doctrine, but also the need for international actors to be schooled in its application.

 

Starting with the ethnic violence that swept Kenya in the wake of presidential elections in December 2007, Mr. Evans cited this as a classic instance of R2P and one that “fell far short of military action”. Although it was a case where the failure to protect had gone unnoticed, international diplomatic pressure and the threat of sanctions had led to a resolution of the crisis. This welcome resolution stood in sharp relief to the international community’s failure to act in Rwanda in 1994.

 

Unfortunately there was still much confusion over the terminology of R2P and Cyclone Nargis’ impact on Burma and the “instinctive” response to the junta’s obstruction by some quarters of the international community had shown this all too clearly, Mr. Evans regretted. This response, threatening unilateral air drops of food aid for instance, was “very counterproductive” and ran this risk of reinforcing perceptions among the global South of R2P being another instrument of regime change which had been seen in Iraq in 2003.

 

Looking to more current situations, Mr. Evans remarked that Darfur was “clearly a R2P in my view” and a situation where there had been a clear failure to prevent, protect, or create a situation for stability. The recent decision by the International Court of Justice to indict Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir appeared to indicate a shift in this position, and it was far too early to consider it a failure of R2P by any means. Mr. Evans concluded that one alternative, invasion, would inevitably be a catastrophe and one that no-one was considering with any seriousness.

 

Taking the opportunity to raise the issue of Somaliland in the context of the instability facing the Somali state, UNPO’s General Secretary, Marino Busdachin, asked Mr. Evans whether he saw a role for the unrecognized de facto state as a launch pad to rebuilding security in Somalia. Responding, Mr. Evans noted the successes Somaliland had been able to achieve since it had been able to break out of the “implausible marriage” that had united it disastrously with Italian Somaliland in 1960.

 

Concluding the question and answer session at the close of the event, Ms. Bonino declared her belief that it was important international figures “don’t play grandiose” with crises and use R2P responsibly and as it was designed. Making his own conclusions, Mr. Joschka Fischer saw the need to reinforce the integration and unity of the European Union so that it would be better placed to react to future crises and fill the current gaps in capability that could be seen in the African Union and other regional bodies.

 

Significant gaps remain in the implementation of R2P as a doctrine, but Mr. Evans expressed the hope that this latest text will reinforce the progress already made. The establishment, by Mr. Evans, in 2008 of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P) is another step which he hopes will educate and inform decision makers about the implementation and utility of the R2P doctrine.

 

 

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[Jacaylbaro]

Taking the opportunity to raise the issue of Somaliland in the context of the instability facing the Somali state, UNPO’s General Secretary, Marino Busdachin, asked Mr. Evans whether he saw a role for the unrecognized de facto state as a launch pad to rebuilding security in Somalia. Responding, Mr. Evans noted the successes Somaliland had been able to achieve since it had been able to break out of the “implausible marriage” that had united it disastrously with Italian Somaliland in 1960.