Where is R2P grounded in international law? Anne-Marie Judson A ...

egional organisations as appropriate, should peaceful means be inadequate and
national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations from genocide,
war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. This paragraph shows that
the international community is legally bound by their duties in international law to
comply with existing international law in supporting the Security Council with the
means necessary to implement its decisions when there is a threat to international
peace and security and action must be taken. It reinforces the state’s duties to support
the Security Council in its decisions. As discussed earlier the Security Council is
dependent on the states to supply them with the necessary means to carry out its
resolutions in the maintenance of international peace and security. If the state refrains
from supplying the Security Council with the necessary means to implement its
decisions, it could cost lives, lives that could be saved by the state’s duty to provide the
Security Council with what is necessary, in a ‘timely and decisive’ manner. The
collective responsibility is the duty of all states that are a party to the Charter when
they have chosen pacta sunt servada to be part of the United Nations. They have chosen
to agree to supply the means necessary to the Security Council through signing the
Charter of the United Nations. This responsibility has been in existence since 1945.
Paragraph 139 of the 2005 World Summit outcome document stresses the need for
the General Assembly to continue consideration of the responsibility to protect
populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity
and its implications, bearing in mind the principles of the Charter and international
law. Once again this statement directly reflects the obligations that the states already
have in international law. It does not add anything new to international law or to the
states responsibilities that already exist. It reminds state’s that they do in fact have
duties, responsibilities and obligations in international law that apply to war crimes,
and genocide and therefore crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, and these
duties provide legal standing for the Responsibility to Protect in international law.
Lastly paragraph 139 of the 2005 World Summit outcome document states that the
members of the United Nations also intend to commit as necessary, to helping states
build the capacity to protect their populations. Finally this statement adds something
new, in that each state has a duty to protect its citizens from harm; it has a duty to
work with other states by peaceful means and it has the responsibility not to intervene
in the affairs of others except though the approval of the Security Council. It has
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