iR2P

It's good to talk: UN/African Union peacekeepers meet Arab nomads in Sudan (UN photo by Stuart Price)

The UN General Assembly is not an easy place to find consensus on anything, so it came as a welcome surprise to hear that its member states have agreed to work to further international understanding on effective collective action to prevent and (failing that) to halt mass atrocities. During the debate in July, numerous statements from all over the world called for implementation of the R2P doctrine as a fundamental challenge in keeping with the purposes of the United Nations, dismissing an attempt by the President of the General Assembly to present aspects of the doctrine as somehow at odds with international law. Representatives of countries with experience of large-scale violence called on the wider membership not to allow others to suffer their fate.

A minority continued to equate R2P with ‘humanitarian’ military intervention, warning of the risk of misuse of the doctrine to justify the use of force. In contrast with this narrow reading, here is a selection of specific measures proposed by various member states:

• good governance and the rule of law
• periodic risk assessment
• national policies fostering inclusion and protection of religious, racial and ethnic minorities
• prosecution of perpetrators, and cooperation with the International Criminal Court
• education and public awareness programmes
• improving and better coordinating early warning systems
• building mediation capacities
• developing standby/rapid reaction capabilities
• regional peer review mechanisms