Responsibility to Protect: Political Rhetoric or Emerging Legal Norm?

The International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty developed the concept of "responsibility to protect" in its 2001 report The Responsibility to Protect. The central theme was "the idea that sovereign states have a responsibility to protect their own citizens from avoidable catastrophe--from mass murder and rape, from starvation--but that when they are unwilling or unable to do so, that responsibility must be borne by the broader community of states." In Dec 2004, this idea was taken up in the context of the debate on United Nations reform. Stahn seeks to clarify the current status of the concept and identify its possible future directions.