Cecilia Jacob - Böcker

In recent years, the world's most pressing conflicts have prompted a series of diverse international legal efforts to advance accountability for mass atrocities. Accountability and Human Protection argues that a transformation in the international accountability landscape is underway. This transformation is shaped both by the humanization of international law in recent decades, and new ways of operationalising international law amid human protection crises. This book describes the consolidation of an International Human Protection Order, in which a diverse global community of practice has propelled new practices and configurations of accountability processes. It shows how these actors, drawing on new practices and learning across conflicts, are activating accountability mechanisms at increasingly early phases of conflict escalation. These are aimed at offering protection for civilians amid real-time crises, challenging traditional notions of post-war accountability in the wake of major conflict.The book offers a novel theorization of the International Human Protection Order, showing the move from international lawmaking to international legal ordering over time. It provides a historical tracing of the convergence of international law aimed at protecting humanity, including the turn to a distinctive emphasis on atrocities over aggression. It shows how the atrocity paradigm has shaped political doctrines of protection, and efforts to reform the Security Council working methods at the turn of the twenty-first century. It then traces the implementation of the IHPO across four conflicts that have catalysed a more radical transformation of accountability practices in recent years: Syria, Myanmar, Ukraine, and Israel/Gaza. The book concludes with a critical reflection on the implications of the IHPO for international justice, and the limits of accountability for protection in a moment of international political turmoil.

There has been a significant consolidation of international norms to advance human protection objectives in current global politics. Yet, while civilian protection is at the heart of international humanitarian law and the United Nations global security agenda, armed conflicts today are increasingly fragmented. The current global security environment creates significant ethical and political complexities for the actors operating in this field to protect civilians. This volume interrogates the diversity of practices and the politics of civilian protection at the individual and community as well as the state, non-state, and the international community levels to conceptualize civilian protection in this complex environment. The book comprises thematic chapters on humanitarian intervention, protection of populations of concern including refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), and international diplomacy, which are enriched with six case studies from Asia and Africa. Combining conceptual debate with empirical evidence, the contributors describe the contexts in which interventions occur and the practical ways in which protection mechanisms have been implemented. This volume offers alternatives that can be adopted to improve and build upon current practices of civilian protection.

This book examines core thematic approaches to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and analyzes case studies regarding the implementation of this important global norm. The volume analyzes this process at international, regional and local levels, and identifies an urgent need to progress from conceptual debates towards implementation in practice, in order to understand how to operationalize the preventive dimension of the R2P. It argues that R2P implementation necessarily entails the efforts of actors across governance levels, and that it is more effective when integrated into existing sites of practice aimed at strengthening human rights and accountability for populations in atrocity risk situations. The book addresses R2P implementation in the context of agendas such as resilience, gender, development cooperation, human rights, transitional justice, peacekeeping and civil-military relations. It details progress and challenges for implementation in the United Nations, regionally in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia, and through national atrocity prevention architectures. The volume provides readers with a breadth of understanding in terms of both the development and current status of the R2P norm, and practical tools for advancing its implementation.This book will be of much interest to students of the Responsibility to Protect, Human Rights, Peace Studies, and International Relations in general.

This book examines core thematic approaches to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and analyzes case studies regarding the implementation of this important global norm. The volume analyzes this process at international, regional and local levels, and identifies an urgent need to progress from conceptual debates towards implementation in practice, in order to understand how to operationalize the preventive dimension of the R2P. It argues that R2P implementation necessarily entails the efforts of actors across governance levels, and that it is more effective when integrated into existing sites of practice aimed at strengthening human rights and accountability for populations in atrocity risk situations. The book addresses R2P implementation in the context of agendas such as resilience, gender, development cooperation, human rights, transitional justice, peacekeeping and civil-military relations. It details progress and challenges for implementation in the United Nations, regionally in Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia, and through national atrocity prevention architectures. The volume provides readers with a breadth of understanding in terms of both the development and current status of the R2P norm, and practical tools for advancing its implementation.This book will be of much interest to students of the Responsibility to Protect, Human Rights, Peace Studies, and International Relations in general.