Operationalizing the “responsibility to protect”

No idea has moved faster in the international normative arena than the “responsibility to protect” (R2P), the title of the 2001 report issued by the Canadian-sponsored but independent international commission. When UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued his famous “challenge of humanitarian intervention” in September 1999, he provoked such a furious backlash from so many countries that some wondered about his future in the United Nations. Yet a mere six years later, the norm was endorsed by the world leaders gathered at the United Nations. Annan called it one of his most precious achievements.

Related Subject(s): Human Rights and Refugees