Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect
The idea of a ‘responsibility to protect’ (R2P) has been the international community’s primary response to the problem of humanitarian intervention to prevent gross violations of human rights. We will contribute to strengthening this norm by developing our understanding of the prevention mechanisms within R2P.
ELAC was awarded funding from the Australian Responsibility to Protect Fund for a project in 2010-11 entitled 'The Responsibility to Prevent – Developing Ad hoc and Systemic Strategies'.
Led by Professor Jennifer Welsh and Dr Serena Sharma, this project seeks to advance the implementation of the principle of R2P by elaborating on how one of its key elements – prevention – can be operationalized in international society. Whilst conflict prevention has been an area of much discussion among policy makers, academics, and civil society, much less analysis has been carried out in relation to the specific crimes covered by R2P. More specifically, our project has four main aims:• To develop an overall framework for understanding the prevention of mass atrocities, organized broadly around the categories of ‘ad hoc’ and ‘systemic’ approaches;
• To analyze and synthesize the 'best practice' on prevention from other contexts, and build this evidence base into the strategic framework;
• To demonstrate how prevention works in relation to the other components of R2P; and
• To highlight possible barriers to the successful implementation of prevention, and how they might be overcome.
The project will also establish an international network to work on these important issues. Members of the network include:
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