Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AO QC, Chancellor of The Australian National University

Implementing the Responsibility to Protect: Lessons and Challenges

Genocide and other mass atrocity crimes continue to shock our consciences - with echoes of Cambodia, Rwanda and Srebrenica in the recent cold-blooded shooting of protesters across North Africa and the Middle East. The embrace by the UN in 2005 of 'the responsibility to protect' marked a major normative shift. But will the new principle ever be fully and effectively implemented in practice? Will its invocation by the Security Council to support strong action in Libya set a new benchmark for future commitment, or prove to be an unsustainable high water mark?

Professor the Hon Gareth Evans AO QC is Chancellor of Australian National University, Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and President Emeritus of the International Crisis Group which he led from 2000-2009. He was a member of the Australian Parliament for 21 years, and a Cabinet Minister for 13 including as Foreign Minister from 1988-96. He co-chaired the International Commissions on Intervention and State Sovereignty (2000-01), which initiated the ‘responsibility to protect’ concept, and Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament (2008-10). He has written or edited nine books, most recently 'The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for All' (Brookings Institution Press, 2009).