The Responsibility to Protect, or R2P, is a promise made by all the countries in the United Nations in 2005. It was created to make sure the world helps prevent and stop atrocities like genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity from happening. The idea behind R2P is that being in charge of a country means you have the duty to protect your people.
R2P is built on three pillars:
A country's duty to protect Its people: Each state has the primary responsibility to protect its populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. This means they need to work hard to prevent these crimes from happening.
The international community’s responsibility to all countries: The world community should help countries that need support to protect their people. This can mean giving advice, training, and other help to make sure they can keep their people safe.
The world's duty to protect when countries fail: If a country can't or won't protect its people, the rest of the world must step in to do so. The international community should first try peaceful ways including diplomacy and humanitarianism. If that doesn't work, they might need to take stronger actions and even using force if absolutely necessary.
R2P is about making sure no country stands by while atrocities are committed. It says we all have a shared duty to prevent and stop these crimes. Putting R2P into action can be tricky because it involves balancing a country's right to run itself with the need to protect human rights and stop mass suffering.
