Responsibility to Protect

In the autumn of 2005, all UN member states were unanimous in adopting a resolution in the UN General Assembly stating that both the individual state and the international community have a responsibility to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. Due to this »R2P,« the legal debate dealing with humanitarian interventions has shifted profoundly. It no longer deals primarily with the mere justification of military interventions; it addresses the collective duty of the international community to react. Thus the legal debate in the coming years could be predominantly determined by the question of whether it is consistent with public international law not to intervene in cases of mass atrocities. In this book, Christopher Verlage analyzes whether or not R2P is already a binding norm and explores its implications for the UN Security Council and regional organizations.
This book won the Harry-Westermann-Award of the Law Faculty of the University of Munich.