Civil Society Perspectives: Building State Capacity To Prevent Atrocity Crimes

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle is about preventing harm to people, and since its adoption at the UN World Summit in 2005, the doctrine has gained wide international acceptance.

But there is still more to do.

At a September conference to push the R2P agenda forward, civil society representatives shared their experiences and provided recommendations for engaging with governments to build domestic capacity to stop atrocities.

The keynote speakers were Adama Dieng, UN special adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and Jennifer Welsh, UN special adviser on the Responsibility to Protect.

The conference was organized by the Stanley Center, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect in the lead-up to the UN General Assembly’s fifth annual informal interactive dialogue on R2P.