The Responsibility to Protect

by International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty; Evans, Gareth J.; Sahnoun, Mohamed

• ISBN13: 9780889369603
• ISBN10: 0889369607
• Edition: CD
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-01-01
• Publisher: Intl Development Research

Summary

The international community faces no more critical issue than how to protect people caught in new and large-scale humanitarian crises - humanitarian intervention has been controversial both when it has happened, as in Kosovo, and when it has failed to happen, as in Rwanda. While there is general agreement internationally that we should not stand by in the face of massive violations of human rights, respect for the sovereign rights of states maintains a central place among the principles governing relations between states. In his Millennium Report to the UN General Assembly, Secretary-General Kofi Annan challenged the international community to address the real dilemmas posed by intervention and sovereignty. The independent International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) was established by the Canadian government in September 2000 to respond to that challenge. After a year of intense worldwide consultations and debate, the Commission now presents this path-breaking report. With its central theme of the "responsibility to protect," the report underlines the primary responsibility of sovereign states to protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe - from mass murder, from large scale loss of life and rape, from starvation. But when they are unwilling or unable to do so, that responsibility must be borne by the broader community of states - there must be no more Rwandas or Srebrenicas. The Commission has also produced a companion volume, written by Thomas Weiss and Don Hubert with input from an outstanding group of international specialists. This volume represents a comprehensive, balanced and up-to-date summary of the key political, ethical, legal, and operational issues and will be of particular interest to scholars. It also contains an exhaustive, thematic bibliography. The ICISS Report includes a CD-ROM, containing PDF versions of the report, research essays from the companion volume, and an electronic, searchable bibliography.

Table of Contents

Foreword	vii
Synopsis	xi
The Policy Challenge	1	(10)
The Intervention Dilemma	1	(2)
The Changing International Environment	3	(4)
The Implications for State Sovereignty	7	(1)
The Meaning of Intervention	8	(3)
A New Approach: ``The Responsibility to Protect''	11	(8)
The Meaning of Sovereignty	12	(2)
Human Rights, Human Security and Emerging Practice	14	(2)
Shifting the Terms of the Debate	16	(3)
The Responsibility to Prevent	19	(10)
A Commitment to Prevention	19	(2)
Early Warning and Analysis	21	(1)
Root Cause Prevention Efforts	22	(1)
Direct Prevention Efforts	23	(6)
The Responsibility to React	29	(10)
Measures Short of Military Action	29	(2)
The Decision to Intervene	31	(1)
Threshold Criteria: Just Cause	32	(3)
Other Precautionary Criteria	35	(4)
The Responsibility to Rebuild	39	(8)
Post-Intervention Obligations	39	(4)
Administration under UN Authority	43	(1)
Local Ownership and the Limits to Occupation	44	(3)
The Question of Authority	47	(10)
Sources of Authority under the UN Charter	47	(2)
The Security Council's Role - and Responsibility	49	(4)
When the Security Council Fails to Act	53	(4)
The Operational Dimension	57	(12)
Preventive Operations	57	(1)
Planning for Military Intervention	58	(3)
Carrying Out Military Intervention	61	(3)
Following Up Military Intervention	64	(2)
A Doctrine For Human Protection Operations	66	(3)
The Responsibility to Protect: The Way Forward	69	(8)
From Analysis to Action	69	(1)
Mobilizing Domestic Political Will	70	(2)
Mobilizing International Political Will	72	(1)
Next Steps	73	(2)
Meeting the Challenge	75	(2)
Appendix A: Members of the Commission	77	(4)
Appendix B: How the Commission Worked	81	(6)
Index	87