R2P: Activating the International Community’s Responsibility to Protect by Shifting Focus Away from Collective Action by the Security Council Towards Early Warning and Prevention

The responsibility to protect (R2P) is an expression of policy which aims to prevent mass atrocities or stop them if they are underway. Consensus on the international aspect, which includes when states can or should intervene to protect citizens other than their own, remains elusive. An observer might well conclude that R2P is a noble idea which is short on effectiveness. This article will examine whether R2P can lift off and move from theory to practice. How R2P has developed to date will be considered first, then the obstacles that have hindered its progress and how these might be circumvented. The final focus will be on the elements which need to come together for R2P to be activated. The conclusion will be reached that R2P can only gain real traction by looking past the Security Council to other bodies, within and outside the UN, to work together at the early warning and prevention stage. Consensus on if and when states can intervene militarily to protect is as distant as ever. It will also be concluded that R2P remains a policy aspiration and will not crystallise into a legal norm in the foreseeable future.