The Responsibility to Protect

The responsibility to protect (R2P) is a relatively innovative, still emerging concept that entered the area of international public law a few years ago. After the international community failed to take action during the atrocities in Rwanda and former Yugoslavia, due to various motives, the concept emerged as an alternative to extend one's protection over another, but also to state's protection that must be exercised over its own population. The norm seeks to never permit an outbreak of mass atrocity crimes of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Under this norm, states fall under the obligation to exercise the protection that they can offer in order to assist the United Nations in establishing and settling peace and, simultaneously, accomplishing the protection of human rights. This paper seeks to elucidate the circumstances in which the application of the norm could be justified, as it may be subjected to abuses; its limits, considering the fact that an uncontrolled and vicious use may violate the principle of non-intervention, state's sovereignty and other international principles; but also, the controversies it triggers, oscillating between being a legal norm or a political principle.