May 2013 Quarterly Newsletter

1. R2P Focal Points Initiative
2. Regional R2P Outreach
3. R2P Monitor
4. International Outreach

On 20 February the Global Centre and the Permanent Mission of Slovenia to the UN co-hosted a preparatory meeting in New York in advance of a European regional meeting of the network of national R2P Focal Points. The preparatory meeting was held to raise awareness about the national R2P Focal Points initiative and to discuss the agenda for the European regional meeting in Ljubljana. Presentations were made by the Permanent Missions of Denmark and Slovenia to the UN, the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and the Global Centre.

The meeting in Ljubljana on 10 April offered an important opportunity for exchanging best practices among the European R2P Focal Points with respect to their roles, responsibilities and experiences in developing national institutional capacities and through cooperation on multilateral initiatives. More than 30 European states attended the meeting, with Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria and Hungary announcing during the meeting the recent appointment of high-level officials as R2P Focal Points. This brings the total number of states who have joined the initiative to 28. 

For more information about the R2P Focal Points initiative please visit the Global Centre website. The meeting summary for the second annual meeting of the network, held on 29 September 2012, is available online. The summary details the interventions made by states and their policies to implement R2P nationally and internationally.

In March 2013 representatives from the Global Centre attended a high-level working meeting on Genocide Prevention and R2P hosted by the governments of Switzerland and Tanzania in Dar es Salaam. Representatives from the governments of Argentina, Australia, Costa Rica and Denmark, which are active in advancing both agendas, were also in attendance. The meeting explored practical approaches to preventing mass atrocities and focused on building national strategies and structures for prevention, including the appointment of R2P Focal Points.

On 15 January and 15 March the Global Centre released Issues 7 and 8 of the R2P Monitor, a bimonthly bulletin which applies an R2P lens to situations where mass atrocity crimes are occurring or are at risk of occurring. The R2P Monitor provides background on the situation, offering analysis of factors that have enabled the possible commission of mass atrocity crimes, tracking the international response and suggesting necessary action to prevent or halt the further perpetration of crimes. Issues 7 and 8 analyzed the situations in Syria, Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burma/Myanmar, South Sudan, Nigeria, Central Africa (the Lord’s Resistance Army), Kenya and Mali.

Monthly updates are also available on our Populations at Risk webpage.

Global Centre Executive Director, Dr. Simon Adams, travelled to the United Kingdom between 15 and 17 April to take part in a number of R2P related events taking place at the UK Parliament. Dr. Adams participated in a briefing of the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group alongside the current UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Adama Dieng, and the former Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect, Edward Luck. On 16 April he participated in a high-level round-table on "The Future of the Responsibility to Protect: Finding a Way Forward" organized by the UN Association for the UK.

On 26 April Dr. Adams attended a high-level panel in Brazil hosted by the Brazilian Foreign Minister, H.E. Antonio de Aguiar Patriota. The panel was part of an event titled “Current Challenges to International Peace and Security: The Need to Reform the United Nations Security Council.”

1. Kenya Engagement During March Elections
2. Statement on Syria
3. Summary of the Informal Interactive Dialogue of the UN General Assembly on the Responsibility to Protect

Ahead of Kenya’s general elections on 4 March 2013, the Global Centre engaged with relevant actors in New York and Nairobi to ensure that appropriate action was taken to prevent a recurrence of the violence seen after the 2007/8 election. The Global Centre also organized a meeting of human rights organizations in New York during January to discuss proximate preventive strategies and emergency preparedness.

On 11 February the Global Centre released a policy brief entitled “The March 2013 Elections in Kenya and the Responsibility to Protect.” The brief identified risks associated with the upcoming elections in Kenya and provided policy recommendations for how to prevent potential mass atrocities. One week prior to the elections, the Global Centre released a statement urging the Kenyan government to intensify its efforts to uphold its Responsibility to Protect.

The Global Centre will be releasing an occasional paper in the coming months which will examine lessons learned for R2P from preventive efforts taken in Kenya between the 2007 and 2013 elections.

On 15 March the Global Centre released a statement marking the second anniversary of the start of the Syrian conflict. The statement called upon the UN Security Council to demand that the Syrian government immediately grant access to UN and humanitarian aid organizations and agree to a ceasefire between all sides, to authorize targeted sanctions against all actors responsible for mass atrocity crimes and to refer the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court for investigation. In advance of the March 2013 BRICS Summit, the statement urged the BRICS members to demand access for aid organizations to enter Syria and to include a condemnation of the ongoing commission of mass atrocities in Syria in their summit outcome document.

The Global Centre recently released a summary of the Informal Interactive Dialogue of the UN General Assembly on the "Responsibility to Protect: Timely and Decisive Response” held on 5 September 2012. Fifty-eight member states, one regional organization and two civil society organizations, including the Global Centre, participated in the fourth UN General Assembly informal interactive dialogue on R2P. The 2012 dialogue marked an important turning point in member states' discussions on R2P since the majority of states focused their contributions on how best to operationalize R2P, rather than debate its status.

Authored by Global Centre staff:

• Responsibility to Protect: Implementing a Global Norm towards Peace and Security, Dr. Simon Adams, Merkourios Utrecht Journal of International and European Law, 1 February 2013
• Killer SMS: Incitement and the Kenyan Elections, Dr. Simon Adams, Huffington Post, 26 February 2013
• Responsibility to Protect in 2022: Building the Politics of Non-Indifference and the Architecture of Prevention, Dr. Simon Adams, “Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: New Directions for International Peace and Security?,” Igarape Institute, Brazil, 8 March 2013

Media quoting Global Centre staff:

• Podcast: Elections in Kenya, Naomi Kikoler, UN Dispatch, 26 February 2013
• Guarding Against Atrocity, Naomi Kikoler, Agenda with Steve Paikin, 27 February 2013
• A Responsibility to Prevent, Naomi Kikoler, Open Canada, 27 March 2013
• Rwandan recounts genocide in own country, Ryan D’Souza, University of Southern Maine Free Press, 16 April 2013

• Kofi Annan's Advice to the United Nations, Lloyd Axworthy, Huffington Post, 21 February 2013
• Time for Brics to stop sitting on the fence over Syria atrocities, Jan Egeland, Mail & Guardian, 22 March 2013
• We are all shamed by Syria’s suffering, Desmond Tutu, The Elders Blog, 25 March 2013
• Valuing the United Nations, Gareth Evans, Project Syndicate, 26 March 2013