Humanitarian intervention and the responsibility to protect : the cases of Kosovo and Libya

Abstract

States have long treated their citizens with contempt while the international community remained unsure how to react, leading to a debate on how sovereignty and legitimate intervention to prevent mass atrocities could be reconciled. In response, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) formulated the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). The R2P is based on the notion that state sovereignty has been evolved into one of two-tiered responsibility to protect citizens from mass atrocity crimes. Should the state manifestly fail in this primary responsibility, dither due to inability to prevent or actual commission of such crimes, then it is transferred to the international community. The idea that the international community can intervene is not new, and can be traced to the medieval Just Wai tradition.