The Responsibility to Protect: An International Norm?
The Responsibility to Protect: An International Norm?

Summary/Abstract: Taking up on Kofi Annan’s challenging question of “how should we respond …to gross and systematic violations of human rights that affect every precept of our common humanity?” the ICISS in December 2001 with its Report on the responsibility to protect (RtoP) affirmed the necessity for collective action by the international community. The Commission identified its purpose as to find a “new common ground” in order to respond to mass atrocities against humanity, and aimed at turning this into an international norm under the auspices of the United Nations (UN). In this vein, this article explores to what extent RtoP has been embraced by the international community and received recognition as an international norm. Based on its analysis of the adoption processes within the UN as well as the debates in the General Assembly on the implementation of RtoP, it concludes that there is an acceptance in the international community of a moral responsibility to act in cases of grave violations of human rights. Nevertheless, in the near future RtoP is not likely to obtain the status of an international political or legal norm due to the inherent political constraints of the UN.

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