Libya, the responsibility to protect and the future of. Annan, responsibility to protect should be carried out without military means because this responsibility had to do with people and the return of human rights. These concerns focus on issues such as 1 the relation between r2p and regime change, 2 the need for enhanced. The coalition justified its entry into the conflict principally by reference to its responsibility to protect the people and the legitimate government of yemen. Responsibility to protect r2p panacea or trojan horse for intervention. The libyan crisis has brought focus to the critical and complex issue of the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. The president and his advisers invoked the responsibility to protect to defend the decision to intervene in libya and later released the presidential study directive on mass atrocities that defined preventing potential massacres, like the one in libya, as a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the united states. An introduction palgrave macmillan, 2010 kosovo, intervention and statebuilding editor, routledge, 2010. Yet, we will make most progress towards a world without mass atrocities by reducing the number of cases that become so acute and preventing crises from escalating to the point of. Responsibility to protect to justify libya intervention steven groves this. The use of force to protect civilians and humanitarian. The responsibility to protect in syria and beyond after the 1994 genocide in rwanda, world leaders vowed that such mass atrocities could never be allowed to happen again.
Post libya opposition to the responsibility to protect. The last is the recommendation to implement responsibility while protecting rwp principle in the r2p framework. The international system is characterized by increased instability, the sharpening of deadly conflicts, mass atrocities and the emergence of transnational extremists armed groups such as the islamic state of iraq and syria isis. Libya and the future of the responsibility to protect african. The president stated that when our interests and values are at no. It is, on the other hand, deeply familiar to international ethics, a widening of the circumstances that allow for overriding nonintervention. First and foremost, r2p reflects the negative duty for states to refrain from committing atrocities against its own people, a responsibility the regime of. Responsibility to protect remains worthy, yet elusive.
This post draws on the discussion surrounding rtop, its application in the context. United nations security council resolution 1973 and the. Protect r2p, developed by the international commission of. First, critics argue that responsibility to protect does not justify regime change. The responsibility to protect, or r2p, is a principle that has generated heated debate since its introduction in a report by the international commission on. The responsibility to protect and germanys 20 election. Currently the united nations includes 193 member states. After resolution 1973, however, the doctrine of responsibility to protect lost substantial support from the international community. Once introduced, however, the logic of prevention as core to the global atrocity agenda was difficult to deny. Responsibility to protect r2p, which was at the basis of the intervention in libya.
This article will trace the roots of responsibility to protect rtop in international law and international ethics. Concept and implementation, opportunity and misuse the r2p attempt failed in libya dr. I was an early supporter of military intervention in libya. Revisiting responsibility to protect after libya and syria. Although the intervention and resolutions on libya can be seen as a triumph for the responsibility to protect doctrine, the actors involved still vary widely in their commitment to the doctrine, which is clearly seen in the way the libyan nofly zone was prepared. On 26 february, the security council debated and agreed to resolution 1970. It examines the r2p legal framework in coordination with events on the ground in libya during the early part of 2011 in order to thoroughly explain that r2p was correctly invoked by the united nations security council in order to uphold international law. Rtop is in tension with established charter law on the use of force, but it may be beginning to change the law. Responsibility to protect r2p, libya, diplomacy, military intervention. The concept of the responsibility to protect rtop has gone through significant developments in recent years, and its use in the latest crisis in libya appears to follow a new approach of intervention in the international community.
The responsibility to protect after libya and syria the. The responsibility to protect has been the subject of considerable debate in recent weeks, particularly as the international community continues to pursue an end to the violent crisis in syria, and the transition in postgaddafi libya moves forward with both uncertainty and concern. The applicability of the responsibility to protect or r2p principle to the current situation in libya is undeniable. In the long run, timely and decisive action such as the international action in libya will continue to be a recurrent but painful necessity. Why we have a responsibility to protect syria the atlantic. Debating the responsibility to protect in libya, syria. The responsibility to protect and the use of force. The role of regional organisations in implementing the r2p. On march 26, 2015, a coalition of gulf states led by saudi arabia launched a military intervention into yemens ongoing civil war. By setting overall strategy while allowing others to shoulder the burden of implementing it, the obama administration achieved its shortterm objective of stopping qaddafis atrocities and its longterm one of removing him from power. This article explores the role that the responsibility to protect r2p played in the 2011 intervention in libya. Responsibility to protect and responsibility to react from doctrine to practice. They called upon the libyan authorities to act with restraint, to respect human rights and international humanitarian law, and to allow immediate access for. Responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing.
Forming the national movement for the liberation of azawad mnla, the tuaregs steadily gained prominence after the fall of libyan dictator muammar alqaddafi in 2011. United nations security council resolution 1674, adopted unanimously on april 28, 2006, after reaffirming resolutions 1265 1999 and 1296 2000 concerning the protection of civilians in armed conflict and resolution 1631 2005 on cooperation between the united nations and regional organisations, the council stressed a comprehensive approach to the prevention of armed conflict and. Unauthorized intervention in libya in 2011 was a textbook il lustration of r2p principles. Emerging powers and the responsibility to protect after libya. Syria another drawback for r2p an analysis of r2ps.
The responsibility to protect rtop played an important role in shaping the worlds response to actual and threatened atrocities in libya. In the face of unspeakable acts, the desire to do something, anything, is understandable. The eus responsibility to protect in the libyan crisis. R2p lessons from libya and syria responsibility to. The study aims to investigate whether or not the intervention in libya was in line with responsibility to protect, and, in so doing, the study analyses resolution 1973 to ascertain whether or not the interveners went beyond their mandate. Libya and the future of the responsibility to protect african and.
The road to humanitarian war in libya, global responsibility to protect, vol. Rothwell and hitoshi nasu, anu college of law, australian national. The response to the situation in libya constitutes a test case for international justice and the idea of shared responsibility, 1 embraced by the responsibility to protect r2p doctrine 2 and the principle of complementarity under the rome statute. Dartmouth in spite of many reservations about the conceptual and practical basis for responsibility to protect, particularly in relation to the noninterventions in libya and syria, the concept should not be abandoned. Emerging powers and the responsibility to protect after libya ramesh thakur summary unauthorized intervention in libya in 2011 was a textbook illustration of r2p principles. The case of the humanitarian intervention in libya in 2011 is unique, as it. The responsibility to protect and germanys 20 election the responsibility to protect rtop or schutzverantwortung has made significant inroads in terms of cementing itself on the german domestic political scene. Libya and the future of the responsibility to protect.
Tuaregs had been living and working in libya for decades, particularly in the oil industry, while others even formed part of the libyan army. The responsibility to protect r2p doctrine, after its first ever implementation in libya, has halted in syria. Whilst libya is no doubt important, it is but the tip of the iceberg. The fall of libyan leader muammar alqaddafi is a significant foreign policy triumph for u. Bellamy t he responsibility to protect rtop played an important role in shaping the worlds response to actual and threatened atrocities in libya. Responsibility while protecting rwp and the intervention. Initially, there were 51 states which had joined this new intergovernmental institution in 1945. United nations security council resolution 1674 wikipedia. Libya and the responsibility to protect between opportunistic humanitarianism and valuefree pragmatism the application of the responsibility to protect r2p norm to libya in 2011 was successful but controversial. The security councils press statement on libya yesterday included a phrase that ought to pique some interest the members of the security council called on the government of libya to meet its responsibility to protect its population.
Lessons from libya and syria in barnidge, the liberal way of war, ashgate. The emerging principle of the responsibility to protect r2p challenges chinas traditional emphasis on nonintervention in the domestic affairs of other states and nonuse of force. Although responsibility to protect r2p is seen as a new idea, it can. For 350 years since westphalia, sovereignty functioned as institutionalised indifference. After qaddafis overthrow, many tuaregs left libya, where they had become targets. The responsibility while protecting implies a greater degree of caution on the part of the international community in. Motivated both by analytical rigor and political expediency, iciss sandwiched its discussion of international response to atrocities between what it described as a responsibility to prevent and a responsibility to rebuild. Rhetoric, reality and the future of humanitarian intervention palgrave macmillan, 2012 international law, security and ethics coeditor, routledge, 2011 humanitarian intervention. The responsibility to protect had been implemented selectively in the past, she said, noting that international law and international human rights law should be respected in all. Despite the brutality of gaddafis rule, military intervention in libya did not meet the responsibility to protects r2p just cause and last resort. In this article the libyan and syrian cases are analysed with a view to. But the operation and aftermath also prove the need for legitimacy criteria to guide decisions on authorizing and overseeing international military intervention.
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