Invoking the responsibility to project: the derogation of its principles and implementation

Abstract

The principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was unanimously endorsed in principle during the UN World Summit 2005. The principle reaffirms the state's responsibility in protecting its citizens, as well as proclaims the International responsibility to citizens. The World Summit emphasizes the importance of citizens to be protected from large-scale humanitarian crisis such as genocide, war crimes, Crimes against Humanity, and ethnic cleansing. Responsibilities to provide such protections will shift from the hands of state actors to the International community if states cannot provide the provision of the outlined protections. Since the implementation, invocations of the R2P have been rare and not implemented in cases that fulfill the criteria of the R2P principle. Such issues have led to the derogation of its principles and implementation, marked with a number of primary cases that are related to the R2P, including: (1) lack of clarity in regards to the criteria of "Crimes against Humanity", (2) prevalence of political interests that occur in the application of the "Just Cause" criteria, and (3) misinterpretation of the Responsibility to Protect. The major cases have proven disastrous, as the issue of not invoking the R2P principle, or the misapplication of the principle, have led to the humanitarian crisis felt by millions of innocent civilians located all over the globe, which urgently required external assistance and protection at that time.