Since being put forward in 2001 by the International Commission on State Sovereignty, the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ has emerged as one of the most influential concepts in international law in recent times. Resulting from the failure of the international community to protect people against genocide in Bosnia and Rwanda in the mid 1990s, it challenges established understandings of state sovereignty under which governments exercise power over national population and territory without broader accountability for the protection of their rights to the wider global community. Accepted by all member states of the United Nations in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, the doctrine is increasingly becoming entrenched in international law.

The One World Trust conducts research and advocacy to advance the understanding of the potentials and challenges associated with applying the R2P in practice to achieve greater accountability in global peace and security governance. The Trust in particular investigates and engages decision and policy-makers on

• criteria for a coherent rule-based application of the R2P under international law,

• modalities for related accountable and multilateral decision making processes,

• role and scope of conflict prevention measures as a full part of the three different components of the R2P doctrine,

• international resourcing and shared implementation of responses, including in the context of UN peacekeeping,

• reciprocal accountability between global and regional organisations, and

• political oversight of implementation of the R2P at global and key national levels.

Related documents and activities

• New report: Yes we can? Options and barriers to broadening the scope of the Responsibility to Protect to include cases of economic, social and cultural rights abuse

• Governments and NGOs - their Responsibility to Protect, notes from the Parliamentary discussion with Gareth Evans, hosted by the One World Trust and the All Party Group for World Governance

• Keeping the stable doors open before the horse bolts, research on using standards of due diligence, working through regional institutions and conducting a less doctrinal debate at the time of crisis will help to apply the Responsibility to Protect in cases such as Burma and Zimbabwe

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For more information about this project, please contact Michael Hammer