The responsibility to protect: An expansion of scope
Date
2025
Authors
Carlson, Rosalia
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University Of Victoria
Abstract
The responsibility to protect (R2P) is a norm in international law that requires states to protect their citizens from mass atrocities. When states fail to do this, R2P is a framework by which the state can be held accountable, and through which the international community can intervene. R2P is typically only invoked in response to mass atrocities happening in unstable or malicious states. There is reason to believe, however, that R2P should be interpreted more broadly and applied in circumstances where a state is neither malicious nor weak, but negligent. The implications of this conclusion are that R2P can be used to address widespread and systematic harm happening in stable, democratic countries, and duly that the tool box R2P describes needs to be adjusted to suit the variety of contexts in which it can be applied.
Description
Keywords
responsibility to protect, mass atrocity, philosophy of international law