Did the UN fail to implement the concept of R2P? Syria and the Responsibility to Protect E-Book

Alex Ovsienko

• Herausgeber: GRIN Publishing
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Seminar paper from the year 2016 in the subject Politics - Topic: Peace and Conflict, Security, grade: 2.0, University of Hamburg (Sozialwissenschaftliche Fakultät), course: Law of War in International Conflict, language: English, abstract: In this paper I am going to find an answer to the question if the United Nations Security Council has failed to implement the concept of Responsibility to Protect regarding Syria. In order to answer this query I will first take a look at the concept of the Responsibility to Protect its history and the main points of this concept. Furthermore I will look at the war in Syria, describe the main reasons and origin of this conflict. Then I will try to find a response to the question whether the United Nations Security Council has failed its obligation to use the concept of Responsibility to Protect and get involved in this civil war. I will raise some controversial question whether like whether the failure of the United Nations Security Council to act on Syria means an end to the concept of R2P.

Leseprobe

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Index

1.0 Introduction

2.0 The concept of Responsibility to Protect

3.0 The History of the Responsibility to Protect

4.0 Deriving criteria for this paper

5.0 The Emergence of the Syrian Conflict

6.0 The Measures used by the International Community so far:

6.1 Responsibility to Prevent

6.2 The Responsibility to React

7.0 Conclusion

1.0 Introduction

Since the start of the civil war in Syria back in 2011 more than 370 000 have been killed as the result of this war[1]. Numerous atrocities have been committed by both sides of this conflict. The government of the Syrian president Bashar Al Assad has been accused by several human rights organizations for dropping barrel bombs on the rebel held areas and using chemical weapons against innocent civilians, killing thousands of them[2]. But also the anti Assad forces, especially the Islamic State has been blamed for many horrendous human rights violations.

The Syrian civilians are caught in the line of fire, between the government forces of Bashar al Assad and several many of them radical Islamic groups fighting the Syrian government. The world community has so far failed not only to find a peaceful solution but also to protect the civil population of Syria from mass atrocities. The failure of the world community to is attributed to the fact that China and Russia have vetoed several resolutions which were aimed at imposing sanctions on the government of the Syrian president Assad for committing crimes against his own population[3].

These all have raise a question whether the international community should intervene in Syria in order to stop the human rights violations. According to the concept of R2P the Syrian government failed to use its authority to protect its population. Therefore according to this concept the international community should get involved in this conflict, since the Assad regime has failed to protect its people from being slaughtered.

So in this paper I am going to find an answer to the question if the United Nations Security Council has failed to implement the concept of R2P regarding Syria

In order to answer this query I will first take a look at the concept of the Responsibility to Protect its history and the main points of this concept. Furthermore I will look at the war in Syria, describe the main reasons and origin of this conflict. Then I will try to find a response to the question whether the United Nations Security Council has failed its obligation to use the concept of Responsibility to Protect and get involved in this civil war. I will raise some controversial question whether like whether the failure of the United Nations Security Council to act on Syria means an end to the concept of R2P.

2.0 The concept of Responsibility to Protect

The Responsibility to protect is a proposed norm that the sovereignty of the state is not an absolute right and that a state which has failed either to protect its citizens from mass atrocities or has been involved in genocide or other crimes against his own population has lost this aspect[4].

The Responsibility to Protect is just a norm not a law since it’s only provides a framework for tools like mediation, early warning mechanism, economic sanctions and chapter 7 powers all these tools are aimed at preventing mass atrocities. Furthermore other actors like civil society organizations, regional organizations and international institutions play an important role in this process.

The concept of R2P is based on three pillars.

1) The responsibility to prevent

2) The responsibility to react

3) The responsibility to rebuild[5]

According to the first pillar the sovereign state has an obligation to protect its citizens from mass atrocities. In order to fulfill this obligations a government of a sovereign state has to address the political needs of its population by creating powersharing institutions, furthermore it has to tackle economic needs of its own population by creating better terms of trade for example and last but not least the government has to introduce the rule of law and create an independent judiciary and law enforcement system.