COMMITTEE: UNITED NATIONS

SECURITY COUNCIL
AGENDA: REVIEWING THE NOTION OF
HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION AS
DEREIVED FROM THE PRINCIPLE
RESPONSIBILTY TO PROTECT
UNDER THE LIGHT OF LATEST
EVENTS
 INTRODUCTION
The Responsibility to Protect or R2P is a global political commitment which was endorsed by
all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit to prevent genocide, war
crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.
The principle of the Responsibility to Protect is based on the underlying premise
that sovereignty entails a responsibility to protect all populations from mass atrocity
crimes and human rights violations.The principle is based on a respect for the norms and
principles of international law, especially the underlying principles of law relating to
sovereignty, peace and security, human rights, and armed conflict.

Chapter VII
Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter sets out the UNSC 's powers to maintain peace. It
allows the Council to "determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or
act of aggression" and to take military and nonmilitary action to "restore international peace and
security".

Human Intervention vs R2P

S.No. Humanitarian Intervention R2P
1 Use of military force Preventive Principle
2 Without authorization of UNSC Rooted in International Law
3 Justified in the context of varying Four mass atrocity crimes: genocide, war
situations crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes
against humanity
4 Right of states to intervene Responsibility to protect populations at
risk

HISTORY
The origin of R2P was due to the failure of the committee to prevent attacks like Rwandan
Genocide and Srebrenica massacre. Many critics of the R2P claim that it is a Western concept,
but it was the African Union that pioneered the concept that the international community has a
responsibility to intervene in crisis situations if a state is failing to protect its population from
mass atrocity crimes.
REASONS TO ESTABLISH AND POWERS GIVEN to ICISS (International Commission on
Intervention and State Sovereignty)

Just cause: There must be "serious and irreparable harm occurring to human beings, or
imminently likely to occur".
 Right intention: The main intention of the military action must be to prevent human
suffering.
Last resort: Every other measure besides military invention has to have already been
taken into account. (This does not mean that every measurement has to have been applied
and been shown to fail, but that there are reasonable grounds to believe that only military
action would work in that situation.)
Proportional means: The military means must not exceed what is necessary "to secure
the defined human protection objective".
Reasonable prospects: The chance of success must be reasonably high, and it must be
unlikely that the consequences of the military intervention would be worse than the
consequences without the intervention.
Right authority: The military action has to have been authorized by the Security
Council.
CURRENT SCENARIO :-
Following are the instances where R2P has been implemented:-

Kenya 2007/2008
Ivory Coast 2011
Libya 2011
Central African Republic (CAR) 2013
Syria
Burundi
Yemen

Case Study: Syrian Crisis

The Syrian Crisis is a three way war between Assads regime, the Protestors and ISIS. Assad, the
President of Syria has Russian backing while the Protestors have the support of United States of
America. ISIS headed by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has emergedas an important player in the
tangled politics of the region.
Over the last five years, Syria has been in constant conflict, which has led to the death of over
270,000 people, 4.8 million refugees, and over 6.6 million internally displaced persons. To help
stop these atrocities International Syria Support Group (ISSG), the UN, European Union and the
league of Arab states as well as other countries, had agreed to meet to discuss the situation at
stake. The conclusion was made that the full implementation of UN Security Council Resolution
2254, which increased the delivery of humanitarian aid, as well as a nationwide cessation of
hostilities, was required in order to help those in need. Syrian government while working with
allied militias has committed large-scale massacres, perpetrated war crimes and gross violations
of international humanitarian law, as a matter of state policy. After Syrias Commission of
Inquiry's third report had stated that the government had committed the crimes against humanity
through extermination, murder, rape and other forms of sexual violence, torture, imprisonment
and enforced disappearance and other inhuman acts. Due to this statement the UN Human Rights
Council has adopted at least 16 different resolutions with regard to the atrocities taking place in
Syria. Despite all efforts and resolutions adopted to help uphold Right To Protect, humanitarian
aid has had limited success in reaching the affected populations. The Syrian government is
responsible for the well being of their people.

Assad
(Russian Backing)

ISIS
Protestors
(Headed by
(American Backing)
Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi)

Syrian Crisis: Visualised

SUGGESTED MODERATED CAUCUS TOPICS :-

Abuse of R2P by First World Nations
Broadening the Scope of R2P to calamities like epidemics and climate crises
Defining the Minimum Conditions Required for Humanitarian Intervention
R2P as a tool of political gamble in Syrian Crises
Need for Humanitarian Interview
Implementation and Unfolding of R2P

Further Reading
http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/
http://www.wfuna.org/the-un-and-r2p
http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/
http://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/about/bgresponsibility.shtml
https://unu.edu/publications/articles/responsibility-to-protect-and-the-protection-of-
civilians.html
http://www.cfr.org/humanitarian-intervention/dilemma-humanitarian-
intervention/p16524
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-law-idUSKCN12O2S3
http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/64/864&referer=https://www.goo
gle.co.in/&Lang=E
http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/index.php/crises/crisis-in-libya
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/editorial/has-r2p-worked-in-libya-20110918-
1wqqb.html