UN Issues Conference: The Responsibility to Protect in the Next Decade

Ten years after the 2005 World Summit, an international effort is underway to review progress and chart a path forward for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). While taking stock of R2P’s evolution is vital, equal, if not more attention must be given to developing an ambitious vision for the decade ahead. Our intention with this dialogue is to move the discussion of R2P’s future from brainstorming to more concrete recommendations of forward-looking priorities.

Among other things, the conference will examine the role of R2P in the most difficult situations such as those involving armed nonstate actors, challenging geopolitical dynamics, and governments not fully in control of their territories. Special attention will be paid to R2P as a preventive tool as well as the institutional opportunities for strengthening mass atrocity prevention and responses.

The conference sessions will be informal, off the record, and directed toward the development of pragmatic policy recommendations.