Invoking the responsibility to protect (R2P) : a realist critique of the emerging framework in humanitarian intervention / by Matthew Brian Plain.

Abstract

In September 2001, an international commission of academics and diplomats published a report entitled The Responsibility to Protect. The commission put forward a concept for how the United Nations could reinvigorate the concept of collective security, but this time have it predicated upon human rights. On the surface, what the R2P concept enshrines is both straightforward and moral. Extreme violence against noncombatants had been a defining characteristic of the types of ethno-nationalist and intrastate conflicts that had broken out in the 1990s. Conflicts in Somalia, Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo tarnished the UNΓÇÖs image as the preeminent international peacekeeping institution. The R2P lays out a road map aimed at stanching some of the most clear-cut abuses of human rights. The UNΓÇÖs traditional peacekeeping practices and strict neutrality are no longer effective in dealing with war-related crimes directed at non-combatants. Therefore, the R2P conceptualizes challenges to international peace and security with an explicit ΓÇÿcivilian-centeredΓÇÖ focus, rather than with the traditional ΓÇÿstate-centeredΓÇÖ focus that has traditionally guided the UN since its creation in 1945. However, the R2P does not represent a productive new development in the international communityΓÇÖs protection of human rights. It is counterproductive in that it furthers opens the door to political manipulation by powerful states in the domestic affairs of other less powerful states.