UNU Update: Responsibility to Protect

	UNU Update
	The newsletter of United Nations University and its network of research and training centres and programmes
		Issue 22: January 2003

The Responsibility to Protect
discussed at UNU seminar

International experts on peace and security, conflict prevention and human rights gathered at UNU Centre, Tokyo, December 16 for a seminar on the responsibility of states and the international community to protect civilians threatened by war, humanitarian crises and terrorism.

Focus of the seminar was The Responsibility to Protect, the report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS). Canada established the ICISS in 2000 to advance the security debate and revisit the challenges of humanitarian intervention.

The commission formally presented its report to the UN community in December 2000. The Tokyo seminar, sponsored by UNU and the Canadian embassy in Japan, was one of the first national-level efforts to broaden public awareness and engagement in building a greater global consensus on a human protection role for the international community.

Speakers included Gareth Evans, Co-Chair of the ICISS, President and Chief Executive of the International Crisis Group, and former Foreign Minister of Australia; Ramesh Thakur, Vice-Rector of the UNU and ICISS Commissioner; Marie Gervais-Vidricaire, Director General, Global Issues Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada; Yoichi Otabe, Deputy Director General, Foreign Policy Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan; and John McCarthy, Australian Ambassador to Japan and former Australian Ambassador to Indonesia and the United States.

MORE INFORMATION

Home