Escalating crises and situations of constant concern in countries such as Syria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burma demonstrate a continuing need for raising awareness and increasing understanding of the principle of the responsibility to protect (R2P).
To this end, UNA-UK has released a briefing paper based on the proceedings of a roundtable discussion held on 16 April 2013 on R2P and the prevention of mass atrocity crimes.
Entitled Finding a way forward: The future of the responsibility to protect, the meeting was chaired by UNA-UK Chairman Sir Jeremy Greenstock and brought together a select group of representatives from government, parliament, civil society, the media and academia. Delegates included the UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, former UN Special Adviser on R2P, Dr Ed Luck, the BBC’s Chief International Correspondent, Lyse Doucet, as well as the heads of several non-governmental organisations from the UK and North America.
Four panel discussions explored how far R2P had come and how it could be used to inform early warning and monitoring, atrocity prevention, intervention and shape the international political will to act.
The briefing paper provides a summary of the panel discussions, which were held under Chatham House rule, and the recommendations drawn by UNA-UK. This document will inform UNA-UK’s policy work on R2P, in addition to providing a basis for similar roundtable discussions in the future.
For more information on UNA-UK’s R2P programme, please contact Alexandra Buskie on 020 7766 3445 or buskie@una.org.uk.
