Freelance Legal Secretary

Freelance Legal Secretary

Freelance Legal Secretary

Posted on: November 23, 2011 - 5:34 pm
by Admin

The emergence of responsibility to protect concept

The responsibility to protect was first mentioned in 2001, when the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty released ‘The Responsibility to Protect’report, which redefined collective security by introducing a concept of a shared responsibility. The Commission was formed under the sponsorship of the Government of Canada to develop a global political consensus about how and when the international community should respond to emerging humanitarian crises.

The report emphasized that where a population is suffering serious harm, as a result of internal war, insurgency, repression or state failure, and the state in question is unwilling or unable to halt or avert it, it becomes the responsibility of the international community to intervene for protection purposes. These principles became known as the responsibility to protect and since the report of the Commission other governments, international officials, academics and civil society organizations have contributed to the concept’s evolving meaning in the international law.

Responsibility to protect on the global level

The responsibility to protect doctrine was elevated to the global United Nations (UN) level, when it appeared in the 2005 World Summit Outcome document. Recent developments of the doctrine on the UN level have been reflected in the Secretary-General’s Ban Ki Moon’s report ‘Implementing the Responsibility to Protect.’ This is the first comprehensive document from the UN Secretariat on the responsibility to protect entitled to implement the concept. The report clarifies the notion of the responsibility to protect, outlines measures and actors involved in rendering the norm operational.