Implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1325: Putting the Responsibility to Protect into Practice

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sahana Dharmapuri
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Security Council Resolution ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Theoretical Terms ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Security Operations

Although the principle of the Responsibility to Protect has a number of supporters, there is still little agreement on institutional procedures to execute Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) systematically. This is due to a lack of consensus on how exactly to operationalize specific RtoP practices with regard to genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes. The acceptance of this line of thinking is peculiar in its ignorance of the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (UN 1325) on Women, Peace and Security, by militaries, both national and multinational, over the last five to ten years. Misunderstanding, underutilization, and neglect of the UN 1325 mandate within the RtoP community has caused many important developments in the field to be overlooked. This article attempts to begin filling that gap. It presents an overview of what UN 1325 is about and compares UN 1325 to the Responsibility to Protect agenda. It also examines how implementing UN 1325 in UN and NATO peace and security operations is pushing the RtoP agenda forward in practical, not theoretical, terms in three key areas of military peace and security operations – the transformation of doctrine, command structure, and capabilities.

The Responsibility to Protect and the Fate of the Rohingya

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-450
Author(s):  
Simon Adams
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
International Law ◽  
Security Council ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
International Community ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Un Security Council

The failure of the international community to adequately respond to patterns of discrimination against the ethnic Rohingya minority in Myanmar (Burma) eventually led to a genocide. The so-called “clearance operations” launched by Myanmar’s military in August 2017 tested the resilience of the international community’s commitment to defending human rights and upholding its Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Two years later the UN Security Council has still not adopted a single resolution to name the crime committed against the Rohingya, or to hold the perpetrators accountable. Nevertheless, Rohingya survivors and international civil society have continued to campaign for justice under international law, and to advocate for targeted sanctions to be imposed on those responsible for atrocities. Faced with an inert Security Council, some UN member states have adopted inventive diplomatic measures to uphold their responsibility to protect.

scholarly journals The Justice and Security Dialogue Project: Building the Resilience of Non-State Actors to Atrocity Crimes

AJIL Unbound ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 113 ◽  
pp. 273-278
Author(s):  
Colette Rausch
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Security Council ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
International Community ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Atrocity Crimes ◽  
Protection Pillar

The doctrine of “responsibility to protect” obliges all states to protect populations from “atrocity crimes”—namely, genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing—under three “pillars” of protection. Pillar One requires a state to protect its own population from atrocity crimes. Pillar Two obliges the international community to help states to exercise this responsibility through diplomatic, humanitarian, and other peaceful means. When both of these approaches fail, states must pursue a “Pillar Three” strategy: the UN Security Council must “take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner.”

Making RtoP a Living Reality: Reflections on the 2012 General Assembly Dialogue on Timely and Decisive Response

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex J. Bellamy
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
War Crimes ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Member States ◽  
The Relationship

This article reflects upon the UN General Assembly’s 2012 informal interactive dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP), which was on the theme of ‘timely and decisive response’. It shows that although Member States recognize that ‘timely and decisive’ responses to genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity could sometimes prove controversial, none disputed the occasional necessity of robust enforcement measures when properly authorized by the Security Council and used as a last resort. Against this backdrop, the paper identifies and engages with three of the key challenges that emerged in the dialogue: the relationship between the the three pillars of RtoP, the problem of consistency in the application of the principle, and the challenge of making prevention a ‘living reality’. The paper identifies ways of navigating these challenges and proposes a pathway for the further consolidation of RtoP in international practice.

scholarly journals Frictional interactions on Women, Peace and Security in Mali

2021 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 463-483
Author(s):  
Jenny Lorentzen
Keyword(s):  
Security Council ◽  
Peace Process ◽  
International Community ◽  
Feedback Loops ◽  
Security Council Resolution ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
The Way

AbstractMore than 20 years after the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women, Peace and Security, the international community is concerned with taking stock of its implementation in countries undergoing transitions from war to peace. This article contributes to a better understanding of the dynamics involved in implementing the Women, Peace and Security agenda through a focus on the frictional interactions that take place between different actors promoting women's participation in the peace process in Mali. Based on extensive fieldwork in Bamako between 2017 and 2019, it analyses interactions between different international and local actors in the Malian peace process through a discussion of vertical (between international and local actors) and horizontal (between local actors) friction. It finds that the way different actors respond to friction shapes relationships and impacts norm trajectories by triggering feedback loops, which in turn trigger new responses and outcomes.

WPS and Adopted Security Council Resolutions

2018 ◽  
pp. 97-109
Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Security Council Resolution ◽  
Policy Framework ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Representational Practices ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Over Time

This chapter outlines the architecture of the Women, Peace, and Security agenda at the United Nations. Building on the explanation of the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1325 provided earlier in the volume, it explores the meanings of “women,” “peace,” and “security” that are constructed through the WPS policy framework. The chapter traces the continuities and changes to the central concepts in the resolutions and reflects on the implications of these representational practices as they affect the provisions and principles of the WPS agenda in practice. Moreover, the chapter draws out the key provisions of each resolution to explore the tensions that have arisen over time regarding the types of energy and commitment that have become manifest in the architecture supporting WPS implementation. This in turn enables a brief analysis of likely future directions of WPS practice and a comment on the ways in which Security Council dynamics might affect and effect certain possibilities while excluding or proscribing others.

The WPS Agenda

2018 ◽  
pp. 828-839 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Parashar
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Global South ◽  
Security Council Resolution ◽  
Violent Extremism ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
A Site ◽  
Just Peace

This chapter offers a postcolonial critique of the Women, Peace, and Security (WPS) agenda. Moreover, it problematizes the emphasis on gender equality and women’s empowerment as universal outcomes for the implementation of a gender-just peace. In doing so, it suggests that the normative evolution of the WPS agenda that derives from UN Security Council Resolution 1325 produces a discourse for understanding WPS that perceives of individuals in the Global South as merely recipients of norms. To demonstrate the implications of this claim, the chapter draws from attempts to include the WPS agenda in the development of policies designed to counter violent extremism (CVE). It highlights the failure of these policies to account for the complex histories of political violence and extremist ideologies rooted in colonial encounters. In response, this chapter argues that for the WPS agenda to acquire universal character and meaning, the Global South must be employed as a site of knowledge and investigation.

scholarly journals Evolution of the BRICS countries' approaches to the «responsibility to protect»

2020 ◽  
pp. 190-214
Author(s):  
Svetlana Bokeriya ◽  
Dmitriy Sidorov
Keyword(s):  
Humanitarian Intervention ◽  
Semantic Content ◽  
Responsibility To Protect ◽  
Active Part ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Present Stage ◽  
Personal Security ◽  
Brics Countries ◽  
Peace And Security

The three-stage transformation in the framework of «humanitarian intervention – personal security – responsibility to protect (R2 P)» reflects the international community's search for the most effective forms of protecting the population from crimes against humanity, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. The concept of humanitarian intervention turned out to be untenable, and in 2005 the «responsibility to protect» was formalized. Responsibility to protect concept was intended to become an effective tool in the field of ensuring peace and security. The article deals with the approaches of the BRICS countries, which took an active part in the development of the R2 P, to its interpretation at the present stage. The contradictory semantic content and legal non-formality of the concept make it difficult to implement it in practice and divide R2 P researchers into two main groups. The key goal of the article is to study the evolution of the positions of the BRICS countries on R2 P.

Locating Masculinities in WPS

2018 ◽  
pp. 87-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Myrttinen
Keyword(s):  
Gender Equality ◽  
Security Council ◽  
Positive Change ◽  
Security Council Resolution ◽  
Peace And Conflict ◽  
Un Security Council ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Gendered Roles ◽  
Unrealistic Expectations

UN Security Council Resolution 1325 and subsequent resolutions on Women, Peace, and Security only theoretically consider gender to include men and boys. Far more common is the use of the term “gender” as a placeholder for women. This textual marginalization of men, boys, and, in particular, masculinities—their gendered ways and expectations of being and acting—is problematic as it renders their vulnerabilities invisible. This chapter argues that these perceptions fail to acknowledge the gendered ways in which men and boys contribute as agents for positive change or as potential spoilers. It concludes that the WPS architecture’s approach to gender, be it masculinities or femininities, creates unrealistic expectations of the gendered roles individuals occupy in peace and conflict. To that end, this chapter suggests that to ensure progress is made toward the goal of gender equality institutions need to transition from a WPS agenda to one that considers Gender, Peace, and Security.

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