Over the last three decades, new challenges to global peace have emerged. Alongside traditional wars between nations, new challenges—such as civil wars, ethnic violence, genocide, and terrorism—have surfaced within countries. These are known as ‘non-traditional security challenges.’ A notable example is the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which Hutu militia groups killed one million Tutsis in just 100 days (between April 7 and July 19, 1994). A similar event occurred in Bosnia in 1995, where 8,000 Bosnian Muslims were massacred—an event now known as the Srebrenica massacre. Since these were internal matters for Rwanda and Bosnia, the United Nations could not intervene directly; under Article 2 of the UN Charter, the United Nations is prohibited from interfering in the internal affairs of any member state, based on the principle that member states are sovereign.
However, these events raised a critical question: how can the international community intervene on humanitarian grounds in cases such as genocide? To examine this issue, the Canadian government established the ‘International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty’ (ICISS) in 2000. In its 2001 report, the Commission introduced the concept of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P).
Building upon this report, the United Nations has since established a special framework—the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P)—to serve as an exceptional measure for addressing such situations. The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) proposal was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 and was also adopted at the 2005 UN World Summit.
Terms of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P)
The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) proposal permits the United Nations to intervene in the internal affairs of a country under the following circumstances:
1. Genocide
2. Ethnic Cleansing
3. War Crimes, and
4. Crimes Against humanity
Under this proposal, there are three ‘pillars’ for international intervention in a country based on the aforementioned grounds:
First Pillar – The first pillar establishes that every state has the responsibility to protect its own population from genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, and war crimes.
Second Pillar – The second pillar provides that if a member state is unable to address such a situation on its own, other member states shall assist in developing its capacity to do so.
Third Pillar – If, despite the first two measures, genocide or other such crimes continue to occur within a country, the international community shall have the authority to intervene in that country’s internal affairs.
Thus, the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) framework qualifies the principle of sovereignty by allowing for intervention in the internal affairs of member states under the specified conditions. However, any military action within a country under this framework remains subject to the authorization of the United Nations Security Council, in accordance with Chapter VII of the UN Charter.
Review
The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) proposal is a welcome initiative, providing a framework for taking action in countries where events such as genocide occur. However, its greatest weakness is that any effective military action requires the authorization of the Security Council, which necessitates the consent of all five permanent members. Any permanent member can halt the entire process by exercising its veto power. Given the current gridlock among the permanent members on various issues—compounded by growing polarization—efforts to take action under the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) framework may face significant obstacles. To date, the United Nations has not taken action in any country under this doctrine. During the ongoing genocide in Gaza, which began in 2023, the Security Council remained paralyzed due to internal disagreements. Nevertheless, this UN initiative—the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P)—remains significant in addressing situations such as genocide.
Image Courtesy: Global Centre for R2P
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