60 million human beings are displaced worldwide due to violent conflicts. This number will increase by the end of the year.
This disaster was highlighted on November 19th 2015 by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at the United Nations in Geneva on the 10th anniversary of the responsibility to protect from mass atrocity abuses (abbreviated as “R2P”). R2P is a core principle unanimously accepted in 2005 by the Member States at the United Nations World Summit following the terrible atrocities perpetrated in History against civilians. Learning from past lessons, the international community undertook a policy of “never again” facing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. What does the R2P really entail?
The Three Pillar Approach
In order to implement the R2P, a three pillar approach has been introduced: (1.) protection of responsibilities of each state, (2.) international assistance and capacity-building, and (3.) a timely and decisive response. This was the acceptable compromise reached, with a view to reconcile the doctrine of state sovereignty and the right of humanitarian intervention, a controversial matter for years. More specifically, the responsibility to prevent the provocation of these crimes and to protect populations from them domestically lies primarily with the state.
The responsibility of the wider international community comes into play to help and encourage individual states to fulfill their own responsibility through appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means. For instance, the international community can help by providing economic assistance, rule-of-law reform, inclusive political institutions, or direct mediation should a conflict seem imminent. Only when the state manifestly fails or does not want to protect its populations (being the perpetrator of the horrors), the UN Security Council has committed to take, in a timely and decisive manner, collective measures in accordance with the UN Charter. Such measures could include sanctions, arms embargoes, referral of the perpetrators to the International Criminal Court, or the use of military force as a last resort.
From Theory to Practice
While writing these lines, thousands of innocent civilians have been subjected to ongoing cruelties, from Syria to Yemen to Mali, just to cite a few examples. The crises threatening people continue to occur, despite the fact that all Member States have endorsed the R2P since 2005. “Early prevention”, which is at the heart of the UN actors’ and civil society’s efforts in promoting the concept everywhere, appears doomed to fail. In some situations where desperate people in need of protection are facing the use of the veto by some Security Council Members, it seems impossible to take the robust measures needed to end a humanitarian crisis.
The root causes of the mass atrocities often seem to lie in political and economic inequalities between different religious and ethnic groups living side by side. Measures required to reduce the risk of violence or to totally avoid it are plenty: supporting the sharing of power, strengthening the rule of law, encouraging disarmament and the effective arms control, building intergroup and interfaith dialogue, educating on diversity and tolerance, and promoting economic growth, so that all groups will enjoy the basic fundamental rights and freedoms to live in dignity on equal footing. To date, if the adequate implementation of the R2P raises some grave concerns, it is mainly due to the lack of effective mobilization by some governments to reform their policy . In this regard, it is worth quoting the American musician, Jimi Hendrix: “when the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace”.
Humanitarian disaster leads to emigration, diaspora and exile. Without solving the issues at the source, without good governance at each level from remote villages to large cities, including the United Nations, the losers will always be the civilians in their homeland, on the road, and in the host countries. For some time now, the images of hundreds of thousands refugees trying to reach Europe portrayed by the media speak for themselves. From painful tragedies to isolated acts of discrimination in some western countries, where social and economic issues arise, the ordinary citizen would rightfully ask the question: who exactly is really benefiting from violence?
Sources : See the following articles : A toolkit on the Responsibility to Protect, ICRtoP International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect: www.responsiblitytoprotect.org ; The Responsibility to Protect: A Background Briefing, Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, updated as of November 2014; and the web site of the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect: www.un.org/preventgenocide/adviser.
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