A victory for the Responsibility to Protect

On October 25, 2011, Allan Rock, president of the University of Ottawa and former Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, and Lloyd Axworthy, president of the University of Winnipeg and former foreign minister of Canada, co-authored an Op-Ed article in The Ottawa Citizen on the Responsibility to Protect. The Op-Ed was published in preparation of a panel discussion entitled The Responsibility to Protect—10 Years On: Reflections on its Past, Present and Future, with Kofi Annan, former UN secretary general, and Lloyd Axworthy, president of the University of Winnipeg and former Canadian minister of foreign affairs, organized by CIPS and GSPIA, on November 4, 2011.

Ten years on, we have seen an important advance in the evolution of the 'R2P' principle, and learned valuable lessons for the future, write Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock

By Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock

In a fortuitous coincidence, last week's liberation of Libya occurred exactly a decade after the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle was proposed by the Canadian-initiated International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS). The successful UN mission in Libya was a historic development for R2P - the high-water mark in a process that began in the late 1990s with the objective of protecting civilians from genocide through international action, and that has been building steadily since.

Cynical and short-sighted commentators have suggested in recent days that the Libyan intervention was a "one-off," or motivated simply by western lust for oil. We argue just the opposite. What happened in Libya demonstrated R2P in action and proved that the principle can be applied effectively. While far from flawless, the Libyan intervention showed tyrants that we are collectively capable of standing up to them while respecting international law, and taught lessons to be applied in future such cases.

R2P emerged following the horrors of Rwanda and the Balkans, to ensure that the international community would never again be mute bystanders to mass atrocity. During its tenure on the UN Security Council in 1999-2000, Canada advanced initiatives to protect civilians while questioning the theretofore unchallenged concept of state sovereignty. The centrepiece of those initiatives was the ICISS report on the tripartite R2P principle for dealing with mass atrocity: prevent wherever possible; intervene wherever necessary; rebuild whenever the intervention ends. Canadian diplomacy was a major factor in having this principle adopted unanimously by world leaders at the 2005 UN Summit.

Libya has been the first real test case. When Moammar Gadhafi threatened the slaughter of his own people ("home by home, alley by alley"), the UN invoked R2P and authorized international intervention last March to protect civilians "by all means necessary" under Resolution 1973.

The Libyan intervention teaches several important lessons and requires followup action if we are to build on this important advance in the evolution of a robust international norm.

First, Libya should be recognized as a major precedent for international engagement to protect people while respecting safeguard rules set out by ICISS, namely multilateral action sanctioned through the UN, using proportional force. Second, the time has come to discuss creating UN capacity to respond in such cases. There are strong arguments for a standing multilateral force, drawing from all the world's regions. NATO performed well in Libya, but this is not its role. For political and practical reasons, European and North American countries should not be left to do the heavy lifting. The Obama administration seems to agree. The Americans support R2P but they would also like to see a broader base of countries involved in its enforcement.

Third, we need to discuss the line separating, on the one hand, defensive military action to protect populations from murderous attacks (potentially requiring the disabling of a tyrant's command and control capacity), and on the other, going on the offence to effect regime change (which is beyond the R2P protection mandate). Given the infinite variety of circumstances that can arise on the ground and the complicating effect of the "fog of war," this complex issue should be debated by UN member states before the next crisis arises, to identify governing principles and better prepare us to make subtle but important distinctions in the proper use of force.

Fourth, the international community must now respect the remaining element in the R2P principle: rebuild when the intervention ends. The people of Libya will need help with the herculean task of repair, reconciliation and building democratic institutions. Lauded around the world for the quality of its public service, Canada is wellpositioned to contribute to this process as a followup to its involvement in the NATO operation.

Finally, there is the question of what to do about Syria. It clearly calls for an effective R2P response. And in Syria we can demonstrate the non-singular nature of the Libyan intervention. Reports are that sanctions are beginning to bite, but the international community - particularly at the UN - is not meeting its responsibilities. Every diplomatic effort must be made to overcome the recalcitrance of China and Russia. Canada can play a helpful role here, deploying our highly effective foreign service in concert with key allies.

So despite the untidy nature of the process and the uncertainties that accompany the outcome, and though there remains much to do before protective intervention becomes a consistently reliable tool, the significant achievement in Libya should not be diminished. International assistance was quickly and lawfully mobilized for a brave group of citizens who faced certain death simply because they wanted change from the murderous ways of a ruthless dictator. With this success, we have demonstrated the value of the R2P principle.

All of this in one short decade: and now, on to the next.

Photos: Mélanie Provencher
Published: November 2011