TORONTO, ON – United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Jennifer Welsh of Canada as his Special Adviser who will focus on the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect wholeheartedly welcomes Dr. Jennifer Welsh as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect.
The Responsibility to Protect, also referred to as RtoP or R2P, is a newly emerging norm coined in 2001 under the leadership of the Canadian government and unanimously adopted by the heads of state and government at the 2005 World Summit. R2P maintains that all states have a primary responsibility to protect their populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, and crimes against humanity, and that the international community should assist individual states in meeting that responsibility. If a sovereign state manifestly fails to protect its populations, however, the international community promises to take collective action in a timely and decisive manner to halt the incitement of mass atrocities.
As a renowned Canadian scholar and former professor of the University of Toronto, Dr. Welsh has made unparalleled contributions to the normative journey of R2P. Currently Professor of International Relations and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict at the University of Oxford, Ms. Welsh will serve at the level of Assistant Secretary-General.
Dr. Ron Levi, Research Advisor of the CCR2P and Director of the Master of Global Affairs Program at the Munk School of Global Affairs, welcomed her appointment: “Dr. Welsh is exactly the right person for this position – she is an exceptionally accomplished scholar in this field whose work grapples with the promises and challenges of the responsibility to protect. Her appointment as the Secretary General’s Special Adviser on the responsibility to protect provides an excellent opportunity to develop the global expertise and leadership for civilian protection, the prevention of atrocities, and responses to urgent crises worldwide.”
Dr. Welsh recently co-authored an article with the CCR2P’s Patrick Quinton-Brown and Victor MacDiarmid for Política Externa, Brazil’s top foreign affairs journal. The article discusses the role of Brazil’s Responsibility While Protecting proposal in the implementation of R2P, especially its first and second pillars.
“Professor Welsh is at the forefront of academic research on the R2P principle. Specifically, her work on prevention and R2P is essential to the furtherance of the norm,” said Mr. MacDiarmid.
Dr. Welsh will work under the overall guidance of Adama Dieng, the Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, to further the conceptual, political, institutional and operational development of the responsibility to protect concept, as set out by the General Assembly in the 2005 World Summit outcome document.
Dr. Welsh was previously Associate Director for the Peace and Conflict Studies Programme at the University of Toronto, Cadieux Research Fellow in the policy planning staff of the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and Jean Monnet Fellow of the European University Institute.
The Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (CCR2P) is a leading non-profit and independent research institution that aims to promote scholarly engagement and political implementation of the R2P principle.
For more information or media inquiries, please contact:
Mr. Taylor Lew
Director of Communications, Canadian Centre for Responsibility to Protect
communications@ccr2p.org
https://ccr2p.org/
-30-