wr2014_web_0

RIGHTS STRUGGLES OF 2013The international community seems all too willing to let the killing of Syrian civilianscontinue. Some governments reinforce their apathy by promoting the narrativeof ruthless combatants killing each other, whether the Syrian military,Hezbollah, or jihadists. Arab governments, particularly in the Gulf, see the conflictmainly through the prism of Sunni-Shia relations, and a simmering conflictbetween Saudi Arabia and Iran over regional hegemony. But to a horrifyingly largeextent, this is a war on civilians. Urgency, rather than complacency, should be theorder of the day.Central African Republic and South SudanDespite this failure in Syria, the final months of 2013 showed that the R2P doctrinestill retained considerable force. When mass slaughter on religious groundsbroke out in the Central African Republic, France and the AU sent troops to reinforceoverwhelmed AU peacekeepers, the US contributed more than US$100 million,and the UN began preparing for its own, much-needed peacekeeping mission.Much more remains to be done to pull the country back from the brink, butthe international community has demonstrated a greater acceptance of itsresponsibility to act.In mid-December, in neighboring South Sudan, hundreds were killed as a politicalconflict degenerated into the ethnic targeting of civilians and a wider civil war.Within days, the UN Security Council approved an additional 5,500 peacekeepersfor the country. That may not be enough to stop the mass killing or stabilize thedire situation, but the swift response suggests that, at least in the right circumstances,the R2P doctrine is still a force to be reckoned with.Notably, the intervention in each case was as much about stopping the slaughterof civilians by government troops and militias as by rebel forces—one of the mostcontroversial challenges for the R2P doctrine.Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of CongoThe international community also mounted an effective international response ineastern Congo, where Rwanda has long supported a succession of abusive rebelgroups, contributing to the massive loss of life over the past two decades.President Paul Kagame typically got away with this because of a combination of5