Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: A Future Agenda

This book examines core thematic approaches to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and analyzes case studies regarding the implementation of this important global norm.

The volume analyzes this process at international, regional and local levels, and identifies an urgent need to progress from conceptual debates towards implementation in practice, in order to understand how to operationalize the preventive dimension of the R2P. It argues that R2P implementation necessarily entails the efforts of actors across governance levels, and that it is more effective when integrated into existing sites of practice aimed at strengthening human rights and accountability for populations in atrocity risk situations. The book addresses R2P implementation in the context of agendas such as resilience, gender, development cooperation, human rights, transitional justice, peacekeeping and civil-military relations. It details progress and challenges for implementation in the United Nations, regionally in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia, and through national atrocity prevention architectures. The volume provides readers with a breadth of understanding in terms of both the development and current status of the R2P norm, and practical tools for advancing its implementation.

This book will be of much interest to students of the Responsibility to Protect, Human Rights, Peace Studies, and International Relations in general.

Cecilia Jacob is a fellow in the Department of International Relations, the Australian National University, Canberra.

Martin Mennecke is associate professor of international law at the University of Southern Denmark and adviser to the R2P Focal Point in the Danish Foreign Ministry.