U.N. General Assembly Debates Responsibility to Protect

On Thursday, July 23, the United Nations General Assembly gathered to debate the responsibility to protect, or R2P, which states that nations have an obligation to protect citizens from mass atrocities if their own government is unable or unwilling to do so. Although R2P was unanimously supported at the 2005 World Summit and the Security Council affirmed their agreement with R2P in 2006 by signing U.N. Security Council Resolution 1674, it remains a disputed issue. 

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon presented a report on R2P before the 192 General Assembly members, which he said was based on three principles: state responsbility; international assistance and capacity-building; and timely and decisive response. While some nations express concerns about sovereignty and many developing countries show suspicions that R2P could be used to justify interventionism, Ban Ki-moon stressed the need "to situate the responsibility to protect squarely under the UN roof and within our Charter, where it belongs." Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister and president emeritus of the International Crisis Group, added that R2P "is not the right of big states to anything, including throwing their weight around militarily, but the responsibility of all states to protect their own people from atrocity crimes, and to assist others to do so by all appropriate means."

To read the remarks made at the debate by Ambassador Rosemary DiCarlo, U.S. Alternate Representative for Special Political Affairs, click here.