Is the Responsibility to Protect an Accepted Norm of International Law in the Post-Libya Era? How its Third Pillar Ought to Be Applied

Abstract

This article explores the Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) in the post-Libya era to determine whether it is now an accepted norm of international law. It examines what RtoP means in today’s world and whether the norm now means that steps will be taken against states that are committing serious human rights violations. The building blocks of RtoP are examined to see how to make the doctrine more relevant and more applicable. It is contended that the responsibility to react should be viewed through a much wider lens and that it needs to be more widely interpreted to allow it to gain greater support. It is argued that there is a need to focus far more on the responsibility to rebuild and that it ought to focus on the transitional legal architecture as well as transitional justice. It is contended that these processes ought not to be one-dimensional, but ought to have a variety of constituent parts. It is further argued that the international and donor community ought to be far more engaged and far more directive in these projects.

JEL Classification: K33, K39