Special Adviser with a focus on the Responsibility to Protect

Background on the Position:

At the end of August 2007, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon sent a letter to the UN Security Council President, Mr. Pascal Guyama, proposing the creation of the position of “Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect”. This position, acknowledged on 11 December 2007 by the Security Council, is part-time and at the level of Assistant Secretary-General. In late December 2007, discussions in the budgetary committees of the General Assembly (GA) regarding the funding for the new RtoP post met with some opposition:

-Some Member States argued that the norm lacked clarity and that a specifically RtoP-related mandate has not been fully endorsed by all Member States.

Due to this resistance from Member States to the position, the Special Adviser’s title was revised as Special Adviser to the Secretary General with a focus on the Responsibility to Protect. The Fifth Committee deliberations resulted in no decision on funding for the RtoP post, and Dr. Luck continues to carry out his mandate with no funding from the UN. On February 21, 2008 the Spokesperson for Secretary-General announced that Edward Luck was appointed as Special Adviser, with a focus on the Responsibility to Protect.

Activities of the Special Adviser to date:

Dr. Luck’s responsibilities as Special Adviser are described as normative, rather than operational. They include developing clarity and building consensus for the concept of the Responsibility to Protect, “to assist the General Assembly to continue consideration of this crucial issue.” Dr. Luck has been undertaking a “broad consultative process” to develop proposals for consideration by the UN membership.

In August 2008 the Stanley Foundation published a policy brief by Edward C. Luck, entitled “The United Nations and the Responsibility to Protect”. The report contains recommendations to advance RtoP. It encourages interagency cooperation on key cross-sectoral issues, and it calls for strengthening good governance and effective public administration where it is most needed. Luck argues that UN Member States currently agree upon the goals of the RtoP but not on the means to achieve them. The brief was one of the first indications of how Luck was pursuing the operationalization of RtoP within the UN system.

Throughout the end of 2008, Dr. Luck spent much of his efforts on trying to consolidate the support of Member States, key agencies within the UN, and civil society for how to best understand and interpret RtoP as well as on how the UN should move forward on implementing RtoP. On 12 January 2009, the Secretary General released he report “Implementing the Responsibility to Protect”, which contains many of Dr. Luck’s analysis and recommendations.

Dr. Luck has been working closely with the Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, Dr. Francis Deng to elaborate a revised mechanism within the UN system that would be able to collect and analyze early warning information as well as provide early warning information and recommendations for action to the Secretary General and Security Council. The Secretary-General in his report on “Implementing the Responsibility to Protect” has expressed his intention to propose a joint-office which would incorporate the mandates of both Dr. Deng and Dr. Luck, in the Annex section of his report. Further elaboration of the joint office is expected in the coming months, after the General Assembly has considered the report.

Short Bio on Dr. Edward Luck

Dr. Edward C. Luck is Professor of Practice in International and Public Affairs and Director of the Center on International Organization of the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. Dr. Luck has held various positions in the international political realm, including President and CEO of the UNA-USA organization, Staff Director of the General Assembly’s Open-ended High-level Working Group on the Strengthening of the United Nations System, and Senior Consultant to the Department of Administration and Management of the United Nations during the UN reform process.

Dr. Luck received a BA from Dartmouth College and several graduate degrees from Columbia University. His degrees include an MA, MPh, and PhD degrees in political science from the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, as well as an MIA from the School of International Affairs and the Certificate of the Harriman Institute.