The Responsibility to Protect at Ten: Perspectives and Opportunities

Since the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was globally endorsed ten years ago, new challenges have arisen for the protection of populations from atrocity crimes. Specifically, the international community must extend and apply R2P to new protection urgencies that are impacting civilians.

To examine how the international community can mainstream R2P for prevention and response to the new challenges, the Stanley Center, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, and the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect convened a panel issue dialogue on September 9, 2015, titled “The Responsibility to Protect at Ten: Perspectives and Opportunities.” The event focused on the challenges of the current refugee crisis, the relationship between arms and atrocity crimes, and the responsibilities of violent extremists under R2P.

There remains an overwhelming tendency to view R2P as separate from other policy areas, despite shared tools and objectives. A key area of opportunity, therefore, is to focus on further mainstreaming R2P into other sectors and enhancing capacity for addressing the new protection challenges that are impacting civilians.

This event summary captures the dialogue and compelling analysis of these challenges from leading experts in the issue area.