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Preventing and Responding to Atrocities: The Responsibility to Protect, International Law, and the Case of the Central African Republic
There is no charge for this program; please RSVP at vance@nycbar.org.
As the world prepared to usher in a new century, then-United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan posed a question to the General Assembly that would have profound impact: how do we reconcile the principle of non-intervention in state sovereignty with the need to protect populations from the most horrific crimes known to humankind? During the World Summit in 2005, all heads of state and governments took action to address that question and unanimously endorsed a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP, R2P) populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Ten years have passed since that historic commitment. We have achieved many positive developments in promoting this emerging norm. However, challenges remain for the effective implementation of the Responsibility to Protect as a tool for the prevention of and response to atrocities.
On September 10th, 2014, the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect, the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice and the Council on International Affairs of the New York City Bar Association will hold an event at the New York City Bar Association on the Responsibility to Protect. Featuring experts from civil society and the United Nations, the event will examine the relationship between the Responsibility to Protect and existing international legal doctrine, as well as the practical application of R2P in conflict situations, such as the ongoing crisis in the Central African Republic.
Welcoming Remarks: Alexander Papachristou, Vance Center Executive Director
Moderator: Elizabeth DeFeis, Member, New York City Bar Association Council on International Affairs and Professor of Law, Seton Hall University
Keynote Speaker: Adama Dieng, Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide
Speakers: Megan Schmidt, Senior Program Officer, International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect; Donald Deya, CEO of Pan-African Lawyers Union and Chair of the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect; Florent Geel, Director of Africa Bureau, International Federation for Human Rights; Philippe Bolopion, United Nations Director, Human Rights Watch