Implementacja koncepcji odpowiedzialność za ochronę

• Authors: Paulina Zajadło-Węglarz

Title variants

EN

IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT CONCEPT

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

The Responsibility to Protect concept has evolved from the debate about a ‘right to intervene’ that broke out in 1990s under the influence of events in Rwanda and Bosnia. After the intervention in Kosovo and later controversies over the legitimacy of NATO’s actions, Kofi Annan, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, in his famous address at the General Assembly in 1999 brought into question the fundamental principles. Annan explained that the principles of sovereignty and non-interference offer vital protection to small and weak states, but at the same time emphasized that ‘if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica — to gross and systematic violations of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity?’. The Secretary agreed that no legal principle — state sovereignty in particular — can ever shield crimes against humanity. Of course, armed intervention must always remain the option of last resort, but in the face of such mass murder as genocide it is an option that cannot be automatically relinquished. Gareth Evans and Mohamed Sahnoun founded the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. After one year the Commission published its ‘Responsibility to Protect’ report that was accepted by the Secretary-General on 18 December 2001. Despite the delicacy of the matter, Ban Ki-moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has shown a great determination to promote this issue and to change the words into action. Currently we can observe worldwide deep enthusiasm for the in statu nascendi norm, Responsibility to Protect. Resolutions are being adopted, meetings are organized, special institutions and experts are nominated, debates during the meeting of UN bodies are held, and numerous scientific works concerning this issue are published. Most UN agencies that deal with human rights, development, peace, refugees and humanitarian work are aware that Responsibility to Protect is the idea they have to respect. It is a very dynamically developing concept — its time has just come!

Keywords

EN

THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT CONCEPT; HUMAN RIGHTS; STATE SOVEREIGNTY; Discipline; LAW & ADMINISTRATION; MILITARY SCIENCES

• Publisher: Akademia Marynarki Wojennej (Polish Naval Academy), Gdynia, Poland
• Journal: Międzynarodowe Prawo Humanitarne
• Year: 2012
• Volume: 3
• Pages: 241-250

Contributors

author

Paulina Zajadło-Węglarz

• Uniwersytet Gdański, Wydział Prawa i Administracji, ul. Jana Bażyńskiego 6, 80-952 Gdańsk, Poland