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3 Global Resp. Protect 425 (2011)
The Responsibility to Protect and its Critics: Explaining the Consensus

handle is hein.journals/gloresp3 and id is 435 raw text is: MARTINUS G1l NIJHOFF P U B L I S H E R s Global Responsibility to Protect 3 (2011) 425-437 brill.nl/gr2p The Responsibility to Protect and its Critics: Explaining the Consensus* M6nica Serrano Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect MSerrano@gc.cuny.edu Abstract While critics have claimed that the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) is a North-South polarising issue and is therefore controversial, this is a deliberate misrepresentation in a rhetorical war led by a small minority of UN member states. The first section of this article briefly reviews the evolution of this emerging norm from its inception in the 2001 report by the International Commission on State Sovereignty and Intervention (ICISS), to its endorsement in 2005 by more than 150 heads of states in the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, to its more recent configuration in a three-pillar structure.' The next part seeks to identify the main criti- cisms that have been levelled at R2P. It touches on some of the myths and allegations that have long accompanied R2P, as well as on the chief legitimate concerns underlying the shift towards implementation. The third and concluding section briefly touches upon the impact of the inter- ventions in Libya and C6te D'Ivoire upon the evolving R2P consensus, and critically assesses the implications of a normative strategy that has put a premium on unanimity and unqualified consensus. Keywords 2005 World Summit, ICISS, General Assembly, United Nations, Consensus, Normative Strategy A Norm is Born: The Genealogy of R2P Although R2P has not yet achieved the status of a legally binding norm, it has emerged as a key feature of today's ambitious normative international * An earlier version of this paper was published in Development Dialogue, No. 55, March 2011. International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, The Responsibility to Protect (Ottawa: International Development Research Centre, 2001) and '2005 World Summit Outcome', UNGA Res. 60/1, 16 September 2005. @ Koninldijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI 10. 1163/18759841 1X602017

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