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OpenCanada: Seven reasons why R2P is relevant today
Tina Park
Image Source: "The United Nations Security Council meets to discuss the recent ballistic missile launch by North Korea at U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., July 5, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Segar"
Read MoreOpenCanada: Meeting Canada’s responsibility to protect refugees
Misha Boutilier
In the debate about how Canada should respond to the crisis, Canadians should consider how the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle unanimously adopted by the UN in 2005 applies to the refugee crisis.
Under the R2P principle, Canada and other UN member-states accepted a responsibility to protect their own populations from the four mass atrocity crimes. Canada and other states also accepted a responsibility to assist states in fulfilling this responsibility and to take timely and decisive action if a state is unwilling and unable to protect its own people.
Read MoreOpenCanada: From promise to practice, UN marks 10 years of R2P
Tina Park
Last week at the UN headquarters in New York, the General Assembly’s annual forum on the Responsibility to Protect took place. The “informal and interactive dialogue” focused on the UN Secretary-General’s latest R2P report, entitled “A Vital and Enduring commitment: Implementing the Responsibility to Protect.” Sixty-nine member states and the European Union delivered statements on behalf of 91 states. The Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, based at the Munk School of Global Affairs of the University of Toronto, was one of the four civil society groups to speak at the dialogue.
Read MoreOpenCanada: The Eight Lessons of Rwanda
Hon. Irwin Cotler
As we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, where approximately one million Rwandans – mostly ethnic Tutsis – were murdered in less than 100 days – we must ask ourselves: What have we learned?
In the aftermath of the 65th anniversary of the Genocide Convention – sometimes spoken of as the “Never Again” convention – but which has been violated again and again – we must ask ourselves: What must we do?
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