The doctrine of the “Responsibility to Protect” was formed to replace previous methods of combating humanitarian crises, as these have demonstrated to be ineffective.
The Rwandan genocide was one of the most tragic humanitarian crisis in recent history. These atrocities occurred largely due to the International community’s poor response as when the crisis was occurring, most of the world turned away during the genocide, hoping to avoid loss of life or political backfire. This was also reflected in the United Nations response. Initially they supplied 2,500 peacekeeping troops to assist in the conflict, however as the threat increased the UNSC voted to withdraw all troops even after requests for increasing the amount of troops as well as the Human Rights Watch calling upon the UN to categorize the crisis as a …show more content…
Therefore the principle of the Responsibility to Protect is necessary in providing a guiding framework into intervening in humanitarian crises, and maintaining world order.
A solution to world order is difficult and there are multiple issues that have not been solved by the principle of the Responsibility to Protect. The lack of political will and power of the Permanent 5 in the United Nations Security Council are issues that still impede the effectiveness of the principle of R2P and the United Nations ability to promote and maintain world order. these issues have been prominent in the use of R2P towards the Syrian civil war. This issue is not a failure to protect but a failure of the international community to show unity, particularly the permanent 5 countries of the UNSC. These states have failed to agree upon action against the systematic and widespread violations of human rights by the Syrian government. Between 2011 and 2012 Russia and China vetoed three UNSC resolutions aimed at the holding the syrian government accountable for the mass atrocities. They also vetoed a resolution that would have referred the situation to the International Criminal Court for