The Syrian Crisis in The Perspective of the (Principle of the Responsibility to Protect)

Abstract

The responsibility to protect(R2P) is defined as “an international norm that seeks to guarantee the no failure of international community once more to confront heinous collective crimes like genocide, war crimes, racial extermination and crimes against humanity” This concept emerged due to failure of the international community to respond to these atrocious crimes that took place in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia in the 1990’s.

The idea of ​​the R2P appeared in 2001 by an international commission on intervention and state sovereignty, and it was developed to remove the barrier standing in the way of humanitarian intervention. It was expected that the crimes of genocide draw the attention of the international community. The Syrian crisis is considered one of the biggest catastrophes of the twenty-first century lasting more than ten years, which violated all international laws, using chemical weapons and the immigration of millions of civilians. The role of United Nations for humanitarian intervention in Syria is not worth mentioning because of non-agreement of international community, especially Russia’s support for the Assad regime by using its veto in decisions of Security Council. The paragraph of the “R2P” law (particularly the first column, the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens) has been voted on and called for five times since 2011, due to human rights violations in Syria.

In conclusion, the term R2P was not overall successful because of the weakness of the international community in confronting the international crimes, therefore the human tragedy of Syria is now one of the clear and apparent failed models in implementing the paragraph of the R2P law.