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Abstract
This article assesses whether shifting the focus of responsibility to protect (R2P) as a response to crimes as such would potentially result in a greater support to implement the concept by the Security Council. Ten years ago, the international community endorsed the R2P concept as a response to genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. However, the inaction of the Security Council in the situation in Syria sadly illustrates the current lack of consensus among the permanent Member States on the implementation of R2P. This article suggests redefining R2P as a response to core international crimes building upon their unifying effect.
Note on contributor
Auriane Botte is a PhD candidate in International Law at the University of Nottingham (UK) supervised by Professor Nigel White and Professor Olympia Bekou. She graduated with a degree in Law at the University of Toulouse (France) before continuing her studies in the UK with a MA in Conflict Studies at the University of Wolverhampton (UK). She also completed a LL.M (with distinction) in International Criminal Justice and Armed Conflicts at the University of Nottingham. Auriane's research thesis is focused on issues related to ending impunity for core international crimes and looking at a greater integration between International Criminal Justice and the R2P concept. Auriane's research interests broadly cover the fields of International Criminal Justice, International Security Law, United Nations Law and State responsibility.
Notes
1 Special Advisers on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect, ‘Statement by Adama Dieng, Special Adviser of the Secretary General on the Prevention of Genocide and Jennifer Welsh, Special Adviser of the Secretary General on the Responsibility to Protect on the Situation in Yarmouk, Syria’ (United Nations, April 9, 2015).
2 Security Council, ‘Resolution 2118 (2013)’ (United Nations, September 27, 2013); Security Council, ‘Resolution 2165 (2014)’ (United Nations, July 14, 2014).
3 Security Council, ‘7216th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East’ (United Nations, July 14, 2014); General Assembly, ‘15th Plenary Meeting General Assembly’ (United Nations, September 27, 2013).
4 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty’ (Ottawa: Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, December 2001).
5 Security Council, ‘7155th Meeting on Prevention and fight against Genocide’ (United Nations, April 16, 2014).
6 UN General Assembly, ‘2005 World Summit Outcome’ (United Nations, October 24, 2005), para. 138–139.
7 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.‘
8 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, 1998.
9 Mahmood Mamdani, Responsibility to Protect or Right to Punish?‘, Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 4, no. 1 (March 1, 2010): 53–67, doi:10.1080/17502970903541721.
10 Doudou Thiam, ‘Twelfth Report on the Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind‘, Report from the Special Rapporteur (New York: United Nations, 1994), http://legal.un.org/ilc/documentation/english/a_cn4_460.pdf.
11 Doudou Thiam, ‘Second Report on the Draft Code of Offences against the Peace and Security of Mankind‘, Report from the Special Rapporteur (New York: United Nations, 1984), http://legal.un.org/ilc/documentation/english/a_cn4_377.pdf.
12 Doudou Thiam, ‘Draft Code of Crimes against the Peace and Security of Mankind (Part II) – Including the Draft Statute for an International Criminal Court‘, Report from the Special Rapporteur (New York: United Nations, 1983).
13 Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, ‘Report of the Preparatory Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court (Volume II)‘, Compilation of delegations’ proposals (New York: United Nations, 1996); Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court, ‘Report of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court‘, General Assembly Official Records (New York: United Nations, September 6, 1995).
14 African Union, ‘The Constitutive Act of the African Union’ (African Union, 2001).
15 UN General Assembly, ‘A/RES/60/1’, para. 138–139.
16 Steven R. Ratner, Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in International Law: Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy, 3rd ed (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 14.
17 Security Council, ‘7155th Meeting on Prevention and fight against Genocide‘; Security Council, ‘Open Meeting on the Promotion and Strengthening of the Rule of Law in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security’, Open meeting (New York: United Nations, October 17, 2012).
18 Aidan Hehir, ‘The Responsibility to Protect in International Political Discourse: Encouraging Statement of Intent or Illusory Platitudes?’, The International Journal of Human Rights 15, no. 8 (2011): 1331–1348, doi:10.1080/13642987.2010.521128.
19 Andrea Birdsall, ‘The Responsibility to Prosecute and the ICC: A Problematic Relationship?’, Criminal Law Forum, March 1, 2015, 1–22, doi:10.1007/s10609-015-9244-5.
20 UN General Assembly, ‘Resolution 66/253 Adopted by the General Assembly’ (United Nations, August 7, 2012), 2536969; UN General Assembly, ‘Resolution 69/189 Situation of Human Rights in the Syrian Arab Republic’ (United Nations, December 18, 2014); Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East’ (United Nations, May 22, 2014).
21 UN General Assembly, ‘Resolution 66/253 Adopted by the General Assembly’, 253.
22 UN General Assembly, ‘UN General Assembly 124th Plenary Meeting’ (United Nations, August 3, 2012).
23 General Assembly, ‘124th Plenary Meeting on the Prevention of Armed Conflicts' (United Nations, August 3, 2012).
24 Louis Charbonneau, ‘U.N. Nations Condemn Syria; Russia, China Seen Isolated’, Reuters, August 3, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/03/us-syria-crisis-un-idUSBRE8720ZN20120803.
25 General Assembly, ‘15th Plenary Meeting General Assembly’; Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.’
26 Security Council, ‘7113th Meeting on the Promotion and Strengthening of the Rule of Law in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security’ (United Nations, February 19, 2014); Security Council, ‘Open Meeting on the Promotion and Strengthening of the Rule of Law in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security.’
27 General Assembly, ‘15th Plenary Meeting General Assembly.’
28 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.’
29 Aidan Hehir and Anthony Lang, ‘The Impact of the Security Council on the Efficacy of the International Criminal Court and the Responsibility to Protect‘, Criminal Law Forum March 1, 2015, 1–27, doi:10.1007/s10609-015-9245-4.
30 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.’
31 High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change, ‘A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility’, UN Secretary General Report (New York: United Nations, 2004).
32 African Union, ‘The Constitutive Act of the African Union.’
33 Committee of the whole, ‘Summary Record of the 6th Meeting’ (Rome: United Nations, June 18, 1998), http://unbisnet.un.org:8080/ipac20/ipac.jsp?session=1383304CT4U50.20209&profile=bib&uri=link=3100006~!976266~!3100001~!3100040&aspect=alpha&menu=search&ri=3&source=~!horizon&term=A%2FCONF.183%2FC.1%2FSR.6&index=ZUNSYMA.
34 UN Secretary General, ‘Responsibility to Protect: State Responsibility and Prevention’ (New York: United Nations, July 9, 2013).
35 Carsten Stahn, Opening Address, Responsibility to Protect and Prosecute: The International Criminal Court after Libya, accessed February 16, 2015, http://iisr2p.leeds.ac.uk/current/responsibility-to-protect-and-prosecute/.
36 James Pattison, ‘Is There a Duty to Intervene? Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect’, Philosophy Compass 8, no. 6 (June 6, 2013): 570–579.
37 General Assembly, ‘Verbatim Record: 85th Plenary Meeting’, Verbatim record (New York: United Nations, April 6, 2005); General Assembly, ‘Verbatim Record: 86th Plenary Meeting’, Verbatim record (New York: United Nations, April 6, 2005); General Assembly, ‘Verbatim Record: 87th Plenary Meeting’, Verbatim record (New York: United Nations, April 7, 2005); General Assembly, ‘Verbatim Record: 88th Plenary Meeting’, Verbatim record (New York: United Nations, April 7, 2005); General Assembly, ‘Verbatim Record: 89th Plenary Meeting’, Verbatim record (New York: United Nations, April 7, 2005); General Assembly, ‘Verbatim Record: 90th Plenary Meeting’, Verbatim record (New York: United Nations, April 8, 2005).
38 Terry Nardin, ‘From Right to Intervene to Duty to Protect: Michael Walzer on Humanitarian Intervention’, European Journal of International Law 24, no. 1 (February 1, 2013): 67–82, doi:10.1093/ejil/chs085.
39 Ibid.
40 Ibid.
41 UN General Assembly, ‘A/RES/60/1’, para. 138–139.
42 Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice, 1945.
43 Kirsten Ainley, ‘The Responsibility to Protect and the International Criminal Court: Counteracting the Crisis’, International Affairs 91, no. 1 (2015): 37–54, doi:10.1111/1468-2346.12185.
44 UN Secretary General, ‘Early Warning, Assessment and the Responsibility to Protect’, Report from the UN Secretary General (New York: United Nations, July 14, 2010); UN Secretary General, ‘Responsibility to Protect: State Responsibility and Prevention.’
45 Jennifer Welsh, ‘Civilian Protection in Libya: Putting Coercion and Controversy Back into RtoP’, Ethics & International Affairs 25, no. 3 (2011): 255–262.
46 Gareth J. Evans, The Responsibility to Protect Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2008), 149.
47 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty’; Carsten Stahn, ‘Syria and the Semantics of Intervention, Aggression and Punishment On "Red Lines" and "Blurred Lines"', Journal of International Criminal Justice 11, no. 5 (December 1, 2013): 955–977, doi:10.1093/jicj/mqt066; Claire Garbett, ‘The Concept of the Civilian: Legal Recognition, Adjudication and the Trials of International Criminal Justice’, International Journal of Law in Context 8, no. 4 (December 2012): 469–486.
48 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty’; Ainley, ‘The Responsibility to Protect and the International Criminal Court.’
49 Sheri Rosenberg, ‘The Relationship between the International Criminal Court and the Prevention of Mass Atrocities’, in Genocide, Jerusalem, Israel (Genocide, Jerusalem, Israel, 2012).
50 Darryl Robinson, ‘Serving the Interests of Justice: Amnesties, Truth Commissions and the International Criminal Court‘, European Journal of International Law 14, no. 3 (June 1, 2003): 481–505, doi:10.1093/ejil/14.3.481.
51 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, ‘The Responsibility to Protect: Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty.’
52 Permanent mission of France, ‘Statement of France at the UN General Assembly Interactive Dialogue on R2P’ (United Nations, September 8, 2014); UK Mission to the UN, ‘Statement of UK to the UN General Assembly Interactive Dialogue on R2P’ (United Nations, September 8, 2014); International Criminal Court, ‘ICC at a Glance’, ICC CPI, May 1, 2013.
53 Joëlle Sciboz, ‘Security Council – Veto List‘, research starter, Dag Hammarskjöld Library Research Guides, accessed May 26, 2015, http://research.un.org/en/docs/sc/quick.
54 Ibid.
55 Security Council, ‘3475th Meeting on the Situation in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina’ (United Nations, December 2, 1994); Security Council, ‘5619th Meeting on the Situation in Myanmar’ (United Nations, January 12, 2007); Security Council, ‘5933rd Meeting on Peace and Security in Africa’ (United Nations, July 11, 2008); Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East‘; Security Council, ‘6810th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East’ (United Nations, July 19, 2012).
56 Ramesh Thakur, ‘Law, Legitimacy and the United Nations’, in Legality and Legitimacy in Global Affairs, eds. Richard A. Falk, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Vesselin Popovski (New York ; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 46–66.
57 Sciboz, ‘Research Guides.‘
58 Kurt Mills, ‘R2P3: Protecting, Prosecuting, or Palliating in Mass Atrocity Situations?’, Journal of Human Rights 12, no. 3 (July 1, 2013): 333–56, doi:10.1080/14754835.2013.812421.
59 Ibid.
60 Congyan Cai, ‘New Great Powers and International Law in the 21st Century’, European Journal of International Law 24, no. 3 (August 1, 2013): 755–795, doi:10.1093/ejil/cht050; Birdsall, ‘The Responsibility to Prosecute and the ICC.‘
61 Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, ‘Summary of the 5th Informal Interactive Dialogue of the UN General Assembly on R2P’ (New York: Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, October 22, 2013).
62 Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.’
63 Cai, ‘New Great Powers and International Law in the 21st Century.’
64 Birdsall, ‘The Responsibility to Prosecute and the ICC.’
65 Security Council, ‘7113th Meeting on the Promotion and Strengthening of the Rule of Law in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security.’
66 Security Council, ‘7155th Meeting on Prevention and fight against Genocide’; Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.’
67 Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.’
68 Security Council, ‘Draft Resolution S/2014/348’ (United Nations, May 22, 2014); Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.’
69 Kurt Mills, ‘The Responsibility to Protect and the International Criminal Court: Complementary or Conflicting?‘, R2P Ideas in Brief 4, no. 2 (2014): 1–17.
70 Birdsall, ‘The Responsibility to Prosecute and the ICC.’
71 Carsten Stahn and Catherine Harwood, ‘Why Reports about the "Death of R2P" May Be Premature: Links between the Responsibility to Protect and Human Rights Fact-Finding’, European Society of International Law, ESIL Reflections 3, no. 5 (May 22, 2014): 1–6.
72 Security Council, ‘7353rd Meeting on the Situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’ (United Nations, December 22, 2014).
73 Ibid.
74 Human Rights Council, ‘Report of the Human Rights Council on Its Seventeenth Special Session’ (Geneva: United Nations, October 18, 2011).
75 Security Council, ‘7353rd Meeting on the Situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea’; Phil C. W. Chan, ‘A Keen Observer of the International Rule of Law? International Law in China's Voting Behaviour and Argumentation in the United Nations Security Council’, Leiden Journal of International Law 26, no. 4 (December 2013): 875–907, doi:10.1017/S0922156513000459.
76 Security Council, ‘7353rd Meeting on the Situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.’
77 UN Charter Article 24.
78 Security Council Report, ‘Crafting Peace Mandates Offers Strategic Chance to Support National Rule-of-Law Priorities, Secretary General Tells Security Council Open Debate’, Meetings coverage (New York: Security Council Report, February 19, 2014); Security Council, ‘Security Council Working Methods’, Open meeting (New York: United Nations, October 23, 2014); Security Council, ‘Open Meeting on the Promotion and Strengthening of the Rule of Law in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security.’
79 Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East’; Michael Contarino and Selena Lucent, ‘Stopping the Killing: The International Criminal Court and Juridical Determination of the Responsibility to Protect‘, Global Responsibility to Protect, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2009, no. 1 (July 8, 2009): 560–83.
80 Security Council, ‘6810th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.’
81 Chan, ‘A Keen Observer of the International Rule of Law?’
82 Security Council, ‘7180th Meeting on the Situation in the Middle East.’
83 Contarino and Lucent, ‘Stopping the Killing: The International Criminal Court and Juridical Determination of the Responsibility to Protect’; Cai, ‘New Great Powers and International Law in the 21st Century.’
84 Chan, ‘A Keen Observer of the International Rule of Law?’
85 Lawrence Moss, ‘The UN Security Council and the International Criminal Court: Towards a More Principled Relationship’, UN Security Council in Focus (Berlin, Germany: Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, March 2012).
86 Chan, ‘A Keen Observer of the International Rule of Law?’
87 Birdsall, ‘The Responsibility to Prosecute and the ICC.’
88 Security Council, ‘Security Council Working Methods’; Security Council Report, ‘Crafting Peace Mandates Offers Strategic Chance to Support National Rule-of-Law Priorities, Secretary General Tells Security Council Open Debate‘; Security Council, ‘Open Meeting on the Promotion and Strengthening of the Rule of Law in the Maintenance of International Peace and Security.’
89 Charbonneau, ‘U.N. Nations Condemn Syria; Russia, China Seen Isolated.’
90 Olga A. Avdeyeva, ‘Does Reputation Matter for States’ Compliance with International Treaties? States Enforcement of Anti-trafficking Norms’, The International Journal of Human Rights 16, no. 2 (February 1, 2012): 298–320, doi:10.1080/13642987.2010.540240.
91 Ibid.
92 Rosa Aloisi, ‘A Tale of Two Institutions: The United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court‘, International Criminal Law Review 13, no. 1 (2013): 147–168.
93 Security Council, ‘Security Council Working Methods.’
94 Security Council, ‘Resolution 2118 (2013)’; Security Council, ‘Resolution 2209 (2015)’ (United Nations, March 6, 2015).
95 General Assembly, ‘15th Plenary Meeting General Assembly.’
96 Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
97 Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, ‘Report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic’ (United Nations, February 5, 2015).
98 Spencer Zifcak, ‘The Responsibility to Protect’, in International Law, ed. Malcolm Evans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014), 509–534.
99 Glenn Kessler, ‘President Obama and the "red Line" on Syria's Chemical Weapons’, The Washington Post, September 6, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/fact-checker/wp/2013/09/06/president-obama-and-the-red-line-on-syrias-chemical-weapons/.
100 United Nations Security Council, ‘7401st Meeting The Situation in the Middle East' (United Nations, March 6, 2015).