The responsibility to protect and the international refugee regime

A series of humanitarian tragedies in the 1990s (Somalia, Rwanda, Srebrenica, Kosovo and East Timor) highlighted the failure of the international community to prevent mass atrocities. Since that time “a newly energized international conscience” (Thakur, 2009) has seen the international community’s response to mass atrocities undergo a significant rethink. Arguably the most important development has been the conceptualization and promotion of the responsibility to protect (R2P) principle. The R2P principle, as endorsed by states, recognizes that states acting individually, and collectively through the United Nations, have a responsibility to protect persons within their jurisdiction from mass atrocities.

Related Subject(s): Droits de l'homme et réfugiés