How the International Community Has Failed the Responsibility to Protect the World's Most Vulnerable Groups
Open Access
Author:
Pinto, Gianna
Area of Honors:
Global and International Studies
Degree:
Bachelor of Science
Document Type:
Thesis
Thesis Supervisors:
Sommer N Mitchell, Thesis Supervisor Jonathan Eran Abel, Thesis Honors Advisor
Keywords:
Genocide Ethnic cleansing Yugoslavia Darfur Myanmar Responsibility to Protect R2P
Abstract:
In the international community, one of the greatest struggles is formulating an
appropriate response to mass atrocities and humanitarian crises. With the emergence of the term “ethnic cleansing” in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, the international community struggled immensely with carrying out an appropriate response to a new term, and subsequently, a genocide. Following the atrocities in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s, the United Nations strived to find a collective and effective course of action for when these types of situations occur. In doing so, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle was created, placing the responsibility to protect a population on the shoulders of countries, but also on the international community as bystanders. The principle has received many criticisms for its ambiguity and lack of clarity on who responds to a humanitarian crisis, when it is appropriate to do so, and how the response is to be carried out. Two modern cases of genocide, including the Darfur region in Sudan and the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, are examples in which the principle could be invoked. However, the principle has failed to be invoked in both circumstances, even with the death and displacement of thousands as clear indicators of a humanitarian crisis.
