Every spring, the CCR2P hosts its annual conference on a theme related to R2P. This year’s annual symposium took place on March 29th 2014 on the theme of “From Rwanda to R2P: A Journey of Lessons Learned,” featuring Dr. Jennifer Welsh, the UN Secretary-General’s Representative on R2P as the keynote speaker.  Please click here for more information. Our 2014 conference transcript is available here. 

The Responsibility While Protecting: Emerging Powers and the Future of R2P took place on February 16, 2012.

Will to Intervene Day – Hosted at Trinity College in the University of Toronto, 10 May 2012 — Transcript Published 10 September 2012

Ten Years After the ICISS: Reflections for the Past and Future of the R2P – Hosted at Munk School of Global Affairs, 12 November 2011 — Transcript Published 9 May 2012

*** PAST CONFERENCES ***

Students: FREE
Non-Students: $20.00*

A decade since its birth, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle has made remarkable progress as an emerging international norm. However, it remains hotly contested, and even rejected, in the eyes of some UN member states. If the ongoing Security Council deadlock on Syria makes one thing clear, it is that the consensus on R2P has suffered since the 2011 Libyan intervention. Academics, government actors and international institutions have yet to develop mechanisms through which the R2P principle can effectively respond to looming catastrophes.

One attempt to improve the track record of the principle, and thereby expand its global consensus, has emerged in Brazil’s RwP proposal. RwP proposes a set of criteria for military intervention, a monitoring-and-review mechanism to assess the implementation of Security Council mandates and an emphasis on capacity building to avert crises before they happen. It holds that poorly executed military interventions can in fact aggravate, not alleviate, existing conflicts. RwP thus seeks to complement R2P by helping to break the logjam caused by Syria.

How should governments, scholars, civil society and students understand the implications of this proposal? This conference will address: 1) the meaning of RwP for the emerging R2P norm and, 2) the unique role BRICS can play in mobilizing international intervention. The Responsibility While Protecting: Emerging Powers and the Future of R2P will gather international experts to discuss this unique addition to the R2P debate for the first time in Canada.

Event Location:

 

Campbell Conference Facility
Munk School of Global Affairs
1 Devonshire Place
Toronto, ON

 

2012 Conference Agenda

9:30 – 10:00 AM     Registration

10:00 – 10:15 AM    Welcome remarks by Ms. Tina Park, Executive Director of the CCR2P

10:15 – 10:30 AM   Opening Remarks: Dr. Janice Stein, Director of the Munk School of Global Affairs

10:30 – 11:00 AM   Keynote Address: Ambassador Afonso José Sena Cardoso, Consul General of Brazil in Toronto

11:00 – 12:30 PM   Panel One: Assessing Brazilian Leadership and RwP

Moderator: Victor MacDiarmid, Executive Director of the CCR2P

Panelists:

•    Ms. Naomi Kikoler, Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect

•    Dr. John Duncan, Director of the Ethics, Law and Society Program at Trinity College,University of Toronto

•    Dr. Gilberto Rodrigues, La Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales (CRIES)

12:30  - 1:15 PM      Lunch

1:15 – 2:45 PM        Panel Two – BRICS and the R2P

Moderator: Mr. Taylor Lew, Communications Director of the CCR2P

Panelists:

•    Dr. Malte Brosig, University of the Witwatersrand (South Africa)

•    Mr. Evan Cinq-Mars, Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)

•   Dr. Victor Falkenheim, Department of East Asian Studies (University of Toronto)

2:45-3:00 PM          Coffee Break

3:00- 4:00PM          Research Announcements & R2P Live Announcements

•    Brief overview of CCR2P in the past year & some main projects for this year: Patrick Quinton-Brown, David Byun and Taylor Lew

•    Key findings from the English research division – Brandon Bailey

•    Key findings from the French research division – Nico Erwes

•    Key findings from the Legal research division – Edward Kang

•    Launching of R2P Live – Edward Kang & Minsuk Kim

4:00 – 4:15 PM      Closing Remarks, Monika Kolodziej, Co-President, International Relations Society

_______________

2011 Conference 

The Ten Years After the ICISS: Reflections for the Past and Future of the R2P conference took place on November 12, 2011.

Click here to read the conference transcript.

Programme

8:30am- 9:30am: Registration / Breakfast
9:30am- 9:45am: Welcome Remarks from Co-Chairs & Introduction to the CCR2P
9:45am-10:15am: Keynote Speech – Hon. Bill Graham
10:15am-12:00pm: Panel 1: Normative Panel

Ms. Maria Banda
Mr. Evan Cinq-Mars
Ms. Naomi Kikoler

12:00pm- 1:00pm: Lunch Break
1:15pm – 3:00pm: Panel 2: Legal Panel

Prof. Michael Mandel

Ms. Jillian Siskind

3:00pm -3:15pm: Coffee Break
3:15pm – 5:00pm: Panel 3: Policy Panel

Moderator: Michael Valpy

Panelists

Ms. Martha Hall Findlay
Prof. John Kirton
Mr. Kyle Matthews

5:00pm – 5:15pm: Closing Remarks
5:30pm – onwards: Cocktail Reception (Junior Common Room – Massey College)*

*Cash Bar

Keynote Speaker:

Hon. Bill Graham 

First elected as Member of Parliament for Toronto-Centre-Rosedale in 1993, Bill Graham served as Minister of

Foreign Affairs from January 2002 until July 2004 and Minister of National Defence from July 2004 until January 2006.   In February 2006, Bill Graham was appointed leader of the Official Opposition and interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, positions he served until December 2006.

From 1995 to 2002, Mr. Graham served as chairman of the Standing Committee of the House of Commons on Foreign Affairs and International Trade.  Active in international parliamentary associations, Mr. Graham was elected founding president of the Inter-Parliamentary Forum of the Americas.  He has served as vice president and treasurer of the Parliamentary Association of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and as treasurer of Liberal International.

Prior to his election to parliament, Mr. Graham practiced law at Fasken & Calvin, specializing in civil litigation and international business transactions, and served on the board of directors of various public and private Canadian corporations.  Subsequently, he taught international trade law, public international law, and the law of the European Community at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Law. He also served as director of the Centre of International Studies at the University of Toronto.  Mr. Graham has been a visiting lecturer in law at McGill University and the Université de Montréal.

A past president of the Alliance française de Toronto, Mr. Graham has been recognized for his contributions to French language and culture in Ontario by being granted the Prix Jean-Baptiste Rousseaux, the Médaille d’argent de la ville de Paris, the Médaille d’or de l’Alliance française, and the Ordre du mérite de l’Association des juristes de l’Ontario. He is a Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur and Chevalier de l’Ordre de la Pléiade.

Panelists

Naomi Kikoler

Naomi Kikoler is the Director of Policy & Advocacy with the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect where she oversees the Centre’s work on populations at risk of mass atrocities. Prior to joining the Centre she was a legal fellow with Amnesty International Canada, where she focused on national security and refugee issues. Naomi has worked as a legal consultant on genocide prevention, clerked in the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, and interned with the Brookings-Bern Project on Internal Displacement at the Brookings Institution. She has a B.A. in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of Toronto, an L.L.B. and B.C.L. from McGill University, and an M.Sc. in Forced Migration from Oxford University, where she wrote her thesis on the Rwandan Genocide. She is a member of the Bar of Upper Canada.

Kyle Matthews

Kyle Matthews is the Senior Deputy Director for the Will to Intervene Project at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Concordia University. He is co-author of the book Mobilizing the Will to Intervene: Leadership to Prevent Mass Atrocities and has advised members of Parliament on issues related to international peace and security. He joined MIGS after more than five years of diplomatic service at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. During that time, he was posted to the Southern Caucasus (Tbilisi), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (Kinshasa) and Switzerland (Geneva). He previously worked for CARE Canada in Albania and later at its headquarters in Ottawa, where he managed various humanitarian response initiatives and peace-building projects in Afghanistan, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Kyle is the President of the Canadian International Council in Montreal and a member of the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations. In 2011 he joined the New Leaders program at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs and the advisory board of the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. He is also a guest lecturer at the McGill Humanitarian Studies Initiative and has commented on humanitarian crises and the Responsibility to Protect on the CBC, Radio Canada, the Business News Network, CTV, All Jazeera English,  The Globe and Mail, The National Post, La Presse, Le Devoir and Global Brief Magazine. Originally from Ottawa, Kyle completed his Master’s in Development and International Relations at Aalborg University in Denmark, earned a certificate in Refugee Issues from York University and received his undergraduate degree in History from Carleton University.

Jillian Siskind

Jillian is the President of Canadian Lawyers for International Human Rights (CLAIHR). In this capacity, she manages the board of directors as well as numerous volunteers within the Canadian legal community and law schools across Canada. She is also Counsel for Tarion Warranty Corporation and is a former Senior Advisor for Ontario’s Attorney General and the Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services where she provided advice and direction on policy concerning public safety, policing and various legal issues facing the legal community in Ontario.

Previously, she has worked for Canada’s Department of Justice on criminal and immigration matters, including war crimes and national security cases. Internationally, she worked at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2001 where she was involved with appeals concerning both the Yugoslav conflict and Rwandan genocide and participated in the drafting of the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic.

Jillian has been a guest lecturer at the University of Toronto, where she addressed the issues relating to the concept of prosecuting heads of state, comparing the cases of Senator Pinochet and Slobodan Milosevic and has spoken at a number of conferences concerning international criminal law, genocide and terrorism.

She has a BA from Simon Fraser University, an LL.B from the University of Ottawa, and an LL.M from the University of Toronto, where she completed a dissertation that proposed an internationally acceptable definition for terrorism. She has published in the area of international criminal law and terrorism.

Michael Mandel

Michael Mandel teaches the Law of War at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto. Among his many published works are How America Gets Away With Murder: Illegal Wars, Collateral Damage and Crimes Against Humanity (Pluto Press, 2004, Italian and German editions, 2005). Professor Mandel has also taught in universities in Italy and Israel. He was a founding member of Lawyers Against the War and frequently comments in the mass media on issues of war and peace

John Kirton

John Kirton is director of the G8 Research Group and co-director of both the G20 Research Group and the Global Health Diplomacy Program, all based at Trinity College at the Munk School of Global Affairs at the

University of Toronto. A professor of political science, he teaches Canadian foreign policy and global governance. He has advised the Canadian and Russian governments, the World Health Organization, the Pan American Health Organization and the International Bankers’ Federation on G7/8 and G20 participation and summitry, international trade and sustainable development, and has written widely on G7/8 and G20 summitry.

His most recent publications also include Securing the Global Economy: G8 Global Governance for a Post-Crisis World (co-edited with Andreas Freytag, Razeen Sally and Paolo Savona, Ashgate, 2011),  Borders and Bridges: Canada’s Policy Relations in North America (edited by Monica Gattinger and Geoffrey Hale, Oxford University Press, 2010), Rising States, Rising Institutions: Challenges for Global Governance (edited by Alan S. Alexandroff and Andrew F. Cooper, Brookings Institution, 2010), Making Global Economic Governance Effective: Hard and Soft Law Institutions in a Crowded World (co-edited with Marina Larionova and Paolo Savona, Ashgate, 2010), Innovation in Global Health Governance: Critical Cases (coedited with Andrew F. Cooper, Ashgate, 2009) and Canadian Foreign Policy in a Changing World (Thomson Nelson, 2007). He is also co-editor of three book series published by Ashgate Publishing, including the Global Finance series and the G8 and Global Governance series, and editor of Ashgate’s five-volume Library of Essays in Global Governance. Kirton is co-editor of several publications dedicated to the G8 and G20, including The G8 Deauville Summit 2011: New World, New Ideas (Newsdesk, 2011), The G20 Seoul Summit 2010: Shared Growth Beyond Crisis (Newsdesk, 2010), G8 & G20: The 2010 Canadian Summits (Newsdesk, 2010), and similar volumes published by Newsdesk.

Martha Hall Findlay

Martha is a former Member of the Canadian Parliament, and held several senior shadow Cabinet positions in the Official Opposition: Associate Finance; Transport, Infrastructure and Communities; Public Works and Government Services, and International Trade.  She served on the House of Commons Standing Committees on Finance; Transport, Infrastructure and Communities; Government Operations and Estimates, and International Trade.  She is known and respected across all party lines for her focus on respectful politics and her efforts to work constructively with colleagues of all parties.

She has recently been appointed an Executive Fellow with the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, and as Chair of the Couchiching Institute on Public Affairs’ 2012 Conference.

In 2006, Martha was a candidate for the Leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada.  Her “Big Red Bus” campaign was highly praised for substance and intelligence, and became a symbol of energy, renewal, and grassroots engagement in the Liberal Party.  She has spoken and written extensively on politics, on significant policy issues facing our country, and on the importance of being engaged.

Prior to entering public life, armed with academic credentials in international relations, international law and business, she worked extensively as a lawyer, senior executive and successful entrepreneur with Canadian and international clients both in Canada and abroad.

Martha is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s International Relations programme and Osgoode Hall Law School.  Outside her private sector and government work, she has also served as a director and executive (including twice as President) with various community, non-profit and public policy organizations.

She is bilingual in English and French, with training in several other languages, including Russian, Italian and Spanish.

Martha’s ‘other career’ has been raising three children, all now adults.  In her own youth, she accelerated three grades at school, finishing high school at 15, while at the same time skiing competitively – she was the overall silver medalist in the Canadian Championships in 1976.  She was named to the Canadian National Training Squad before retiring to pursue her formal education.  She then supported herself through university working as a waitress, in construction (primarily as a carpenter), and coaching young ski racers, several of whom went on to the Olympics.

Evan Cinq-Mars

Evan Cinq-Mars is the Blogger & Social Media Coordinator at the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP). He is the lead contributor to the organization’s blog, writing on thematic issues related to the responsibility to protect and crisis situations in Libya, Sudan, Syria, Yemen and beyond. He also manages ICRtoP’s twitter account, employing the social media outlet to start an online conversation on R2P and mass atrocity prevention. Prior to starting this position, Evan was a research and advocacy intern with the ICRtoP Secretariat in New York City. Evan recently commenced working with the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) as the Zimbabwe Desk Officer for its Media Monitoring and Early Warning Project. He is also currently a Governing Council Member of the World Federalist Movement-Canada. Prior to this, Evan was involved with the national team of Stand Canada, a student-led anti-genocide advocacy organization, as its National High School Chapter Coordinator, and was a member of Stand’s Parliamentary Engagement Team. He holds a Bachelor of Public Affairs and Policy Management (BPAPM) with a specialization in International Studies from Carleton University’s Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs.

Maria Banda

Maria Banda completed her doctoral dissertation in International Relations at Oxford University, which examined the evolving doctrine and practice of the “Responsibility to Protect” (R2P) in 2001-2009 from the perspective of both international relations and international law.  A Rhodes and a Trudeau Scholar, Maria is a graduate of Trinity College at the University of Toronto, Oxford University, and Harvard Law School. She has worked with several international organizations and written on Canada-U.S. relations, global governance, climate change, and the environment. She is a member of the New York State bar.