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Responsibility to Protect The role of Civil
Society

• By Francis K. Wairagu
• Presented at the International Workshop on
  Responsibility to Protect Perspectives of the
  South and the North
• Organized by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the
  Working Group on Development and Peace
• Bonn 17th October 2006

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Introduction

• Responsibility to Protect rises out of the
  failure by international community failure to
  adequately respond to the 1990s crises.
• It is a recasting of a new approach to such
  crises
• Attention is moved from the Right to intervene
  to the Responsibility to Protect
• The intention is bring about norms, or guiding
  principles of behaviour for the international
  community of states in seeking people welfare.
• The justification for this conceptual shift rests
  in the new focus on human rights and more
  recently on the human security emphasis that
  limits the sovereignty of states

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The Guiding Tenets

• The responsibility to prevent to address both
  the root causes and direct causes of internal
  conflict and other man-made crises putting
  populations at risk.
• The responsibility to react to respond to
  situations of compelling human need with
  appropriate measures, which may include coercive
  measures like sanctions and international
  prosecution, and in extreme cases military
  intervention.
• The responsibility to build to provide,
  particularly after a military intervention, full
  assistance with recovery, reconstruction, and
  reconciliation, addressing the causes of the harm
  the intervention was designed to halt or avert.

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Role of Civil Societya) To the General Concept

1. Expounding on the concept or the principles eg
   What does Responsibility and Protection mean?
2. Taking the debate out to the people
3. Engaging governments to measure willingness and
   any challenges
4. Suggesting ways and means of improving the
   concept
5. Partner with governments and monitor
   implementation
6. Hold governments accountable where action is
   delayed or not taken at all.
7. Maintain their roles in the prevention and
   protection.

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b) Under Prevention

• Research and situational analysis
• Engaging state leaderships and seeking
  international response to deserving cases
• Peace building and conflict transformation
• Partner with governments but maintain
  independence
• Development for peace initiatives
• Participate in the processes of building good
  governance
• Encourage institutional transformation to
  stabilize governance

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c) Under the Responsibility to React

1. It is the most challenging stage because there is
   confrontation
2. Maintain the protection of civilians even in the
   confrontation, humanitarian assistance
3. Monitor the interveners to ensure that they keep
   to the rules of engagement.
4. Build capacity for local take over after the
   intervention

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d) Under the responsibility to build

1. Lobbying governments for resources to rebuild
2. Monitor exploitation of local resources by the
   interveners
3. Encourage and build capacity for local
   participation
4. Offering post-conflict therapy
5. Encourage interveners to leave at appropriate
   times
6. Further peace building and reintegration
7. Re-construction of governance and appropriate
   state institutions
8. etc

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What opportunities does it provide

1. It looks at the issues from the perspective of
   those seeking or needing support, rather than
   those who may be considering intervention.
2. It implies that the primary responsibility rests
   with the state concerned, and that it is only if
   the state is unable or unwilling to fulfil the
   responsibility to protect, or is itself the
   perpetrator, that it becomes the responsibility
   of the international community to act in its
   place.
3. To protect implies more than to intervene it
   embraces not just a responsibility to react, but
   to prevent and rebuild as well.
4. Above all, new language helps clarify and
   redirect the policy debate the actors have to
   change their lines, and think afresh about what
   the real issues are.

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How does it feed into other mechanism

• 1. In the case of Africa, there are clear roles
  for AU to intervene in countries where there are
  serious human rights abuse among others
• 2. Both the AU and NEPAB have clear avenues for
  civil society engagement and holding member
  states accountable.
• 3. There are already regional bodies ready to
  intervene if one of their own is abusing human
  rights, allows genocide like activities, ECOWAS,
  IGAD, etc
• 4. Civil society has been doing peace building
  and most regions are currently busy revamping
  regional Stand by Protection
• 5. The Great Lakes UN conference is a good
  example
• 6. The Nairobi SALW Protocol is another example

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How it is being used in my region

• It is rather new and un-understood

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Challenges

1. The current UN system especially the Security
   Council and its process
2. The international relation theory of self
   interests
3. Excuses not to and lack of capacity for response
   by various states
4. Too late responses
5. What happens to situations where there no
   prospects for regaining what is spent on reaction
6. The question of enforcement to states or the UN o
   take responsibility, deaths, funds, etc
7. Civil society is dependent on states for funding
   and as such will somehow pursues certain
   interests, lack of coordination etc