Human Rights and Democracy - Official Documents

The Responsibility to Protect
At the UN 2005 World Summit, governments recognised that each state has a
“Responsibility to Protect” their own population from genocide, war crimes, ethnic
cleansing and crimes against humanity and that the international community has a
responsibility to help implement this agenda.
Implementing the Responsibility to Protect remains a challenge, but we are
committed to encouraging and assisting states to meet their responsibilities. For
example, our support for police reform initiatives in Kenya in 2010 helped strengthen
the government of Kenya’s capacity to prevent violence around the constitutional
referendum in August.
In 2010 the EU reiterated its commitment to promoting the Responsibility to Protect
at regional levels by providing financial and political support to the African Union’s
Continental Early Warning System and the African-led peace support operations
such as that in the Central African Republic. A UK-hosted Wilton Park conference
of UN, AU and EU participants in June considered how the EU could better
implement the principles of the Responsibility to Protect into its broader work on
crisis management and conflict prevention.
Early warning is a crucial element in the international community’s ability to prevent
the conditions in which the worst atrocities can take place. At the UN we participated
in the General Assembly dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect and early warning,
at which we joined the majority of member states in reaffirming our support for the
Secretary-General’s proposal for a joint office to improve collaboration between the
UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide and the
Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect. We also
provided funding from the Conflict Pool to the Office of the Special Adviser for the
Prevention of Genocide to help enhance their early warning tracking system.
In November, during our presidency of the UN Security Council, we organised a
briefing for the Security Council by the Department of Political Affairs on emerging or
growing conflicts. We are encouraging future Security Council presidents to make
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