Responsibility to Protect Archives

The UN’s Emphasis on Prevention Could Use Lessons From the Case of Guinea

June 26, 2018June 18, 2018 by Gustavo Macedo

Historically neglected, gender-based violence is now becoming broadly recognized as a legitimate and urgent agenda item among the United Nations member nations, notably in the UN’s most powerful forum, the Security Council. But the future of the agenda is uncertain, as priorities remain unclear and inadequate methods for preventing sexual violence against women keep us … Read more

TOPIC: WOMEN

Building a Case for Prosecuting the Genocide of Yazidi Women

August 12, 2017August 1, 2017 by Barbara Crossette

As the Islamic State’s self-proclaimed caliphate in Iraq crumbles, assessments begin to emerge of the damage left in its wake by its cultural nihilism and harsh sectarian absolutism designed to remake an Arab society. The human costs have been high in Iraq — in deaths, maiming, displacement and the enslavement of girls and women. A … Read more

BOOKS

The Rules of War Need a Major Overhaul

December 4, 2016December 3, 2016 by Irwin Arieff

Donetsk People's Republic fighters in Ukraine

Evidence is piling up: the global security framework that emerged from the ashes of World War II is no longer capable of pursuing international peace. The arrangement, conceived by the major powers that won the war, has expanded into a grab bag of rules and institutions that the crises of our own era have gradually … Read more

To End Deep Inequalities, Say Doyle and Stiglitz, Create a Ninth Development Goal

May 21, 2014May 7, 2014 by Barbara Crossette

A girl holds an umbrella near the port in Guinea-Bissau's capital Bissau

Two leading international policy experts at Columbia University are calling for more action from individual governments to address inequalities within their borders, in effect adding a bold new goal to the eight measurements of progress reflected in the Millennium Development Goals. Their proposal comes as debate swirls around what the United Nations needs to do … Read more

Deep Flaws in UN Response to Sri Lanka Include R2P Failure

November 15, 2014December 20, 2012 by Alice Volkov

Tamil Tiger cadres loading up in Sri Lanka

The United Nation’s internal report on its role during the final stages of the prolonged civil war in Sri Lanka was unusually critical of the Secretariat and highlighted major shortcomings in the UN’s response to the fighting. The report, which was leaked to the BBC days before its official release on Nov. 15, forced top … Read more

WORLDVIEWS

Protecting Civilians: How It Works

November 23, 2014December 10, 2012 by Hugh Breakey - Charles Sampford - Ramesh Thakur

CANBERRA, Australia — A steady rise has been occurring in the last two centuries in the proportion of civilians killed in armed conflict, either from direct violence or conflict-related hunger and disease. The international community has responded to the calls to protect innocent victims by developing two parallel principles, the protection of civilians and the … Read more

UN Security Council Sends an Observer Team to Syria

November 9, 2014April 14, 2012 by Dulcie Leimbach

The Security Council passed a resolution on Saturday allowing a team of 30 unarmed military observers to enter Syria as soon as Sunday to monitor the cease-fire that has more or less been respected since Thursday. Up to 250 observers, drawn mostly from United Nations peacekeeping troops in the region, are to eventually make up … Read more

The Responsibility to Protect Gets a Checkup

December 7, 2014January 21, 2012 by Barbara Crossette

When the carnage of the 1990s wound down, with more than a million people dead in massacres and brutal ethnic or political wars in and around Rwanda, the Balkans and elsewhere, nations that had failed to act to stop such tragedies began seeking ways to prevent future catastrophes. From this terrible decade, the long-postponed creation … Read more