Conference Report | Implementing the Responsibility to Protect

This past July, Wilton Park hosted a conference on Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: The Role of Regional and Subregional Partners. They've just released the conference report, which can be found here. The findings include the following:

• As a general rule, the operationalisation of RtoP will rely on how successfully political will is mobilised;
• Although the third pillar (response) should not be neglected, it is important to achieve the right balance between the three pillars (response, protect and assistance);
• Maybe there is an over-emphasis on the state-centric approach - civil society organisations and the private sector may become more important actors;
• Involvement, coherence and identity: it is important to mainstream RtoP within international and regional organisations so it becomes part of standard operating procedures;
• There is a need to work on defining and expanding preventive activities;
• There is some general 'discomfort' with the concept within the humanitarian community and how it may impinge or impact on humanitarian work;
• Political leadership that mobilises action, allied to civil society organisations to generate interest and create pressure, collectively serves to energise capabilities and capacity;
• There is a need to find better ways of coping with inconsistent application of the principle of RtoP taking into account what is politically feasible and materially achievable in any given situation;
• The international community should retain the present three-pillar definition used in paragraphs 138/139 of the World Summit Outcome Document (and then elaborated by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a speech in Berlin on 15 July 2008, following the Wilton Park meeting).