Background:

Beginning in September 2007, the World Federalist Movement Institute for Global Policy (WFM-IGP) embarked on a new initiative: to build a global civil society network for the Responsibility to Protect. The initiative, supported by Human Rights Watch, International Crisis Group, Oxfam International and Refugees International, aimed to establish a global network with representation from both Northern and Southern NGOs. The R2PCS Project is organizing a series of consultative roundtables with NGOs worldwide, to 1) increase understanding of R2P and how it applies to conflicts in the region, 2) explore how to strengthen regional and international mechanisms to support R2P, and 3) forge partnerships with NGOs who are interested in joining in a core group in building an NGO network.
 

 Dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect: European perspectives, 25-26 June 2008: Paris, France

"Prospects for an International Network on R2P: Civil Society Consultations"

Panel 1: Eric Chevallier, Special Advisor to the French Foreign Minister
Gareth Evans, President and CEO of the International Crisis Group

Chair: Luc Lamprire, Executive Director Oxfam France gir Ici

Luc Lamprire welcomed all speakers and participants, and introduced Eric Chevallier, who provided opening remarks on behalf of French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner who, at the last minute, was unable to attend. Mr. Chevallier explained that R2P is the heir of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, droit & devoir dingrence and also 2005 Summit : it is still young and fragile and must be understood as a full spectrum of actions to prevent, react and rebuild in instances of mass atrocities. He underlined that today 119 countries are contributing to various peace keeping operations, estern countries being a minority of them. Although the term must not be reduced to military intervention, the possibility of forceful intervention must be carefully and collectively examined according to the five criteria laid out in the 2001 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) report. The recommended criteria are: just cause threshold, right intention, last resort, proportional means, and reasonable prospects of success. Mr. Chevallier argued that Bernard Kouchners invocation of R2P in the recent Burmese context had not been counter-productive, as it has furthered the discussion on what the norm entailed and how to apply it. Most importantly, he explained that speaking of R2P did not prevent France from delivering aid to the disaster area. Mr. Chevallier spoke of the French presidency of the EU (starting July 1st) as a great opportunity for France to take an active part in creating consensus to defend the application of R2P. He also insisted that all countries, especially in the global south, must be mobilized to claim ownership of R2P, emphasizing the role of civil society in this process and the value-added of partnerships and coalitions.

Before welcoming Gareth Evans, Luc Lamprire introduced R2P in the European and French context. He mentioned that the French presidency of the EU offers an important opportunity to revive the engagement that European countries made in 2005, for instance by pushing for the inclusion of the concept in the upcoming revision of the European Security Strategy (ESS). At the national level in France, R2P has entered the public discourse of the presidency and is included in the recent white paper on defense and national security. The upcoming white paper of the foreign ministry offers similar opportunities.

Gareth Evans gave a keynote address on the origins of R2P in the development of human rights since the mid-19th century, including the important intellectual contribution of Bernard Kouchner in the 1990s in mobilizing around the concept of droit dingrence. Mr. Evans mentioned three main challenges to the advancement of the norm:
1. Conceptual misunderstandings; it must be made clear that:
a. the term is not another name for humanitarian and military intervention;
b. R2P does not necessarily mean the use of coercive military force, even in extreme cases ;
c. no country however big or powerful is immune from collective pressure
d. R2P does not cover all human security issues such as HIV/AIDS, climate change or cluster bombs, but is restricted to genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes;
e. the invasion of Iraq must be set as a classic example of how not to apply the R2P norm.
2. Institutional preparedness ssuming there is an understanding of the need to act, there is a necessity to ensure that there will be physical capacity to do so within international institutions, governments, and regional organizations hether preventively or reactively, and whether through political, diplomatic and economic or legal, policing and military measures.
3. Political preparedness here is a need to generate political will and to have in place the mechanisms and strategies to ensure effective political responses as R2P situations arise.
Mr. Evans mentioned the crucial role of NGOs in addressing these challenges, most specifically in clarifying the concept to avoid misunderstandings and to move forward on discussions regarding the criteria for military intervention.

Panel 2: Bernard Miyet, Former UN Undersecretary General for the Department of
Peacekeeping Operations 1997-2000
Tom Weiss, Interim Executive Director for the Global Centre on the Responsibility to
Protect
Chair: William Pace, Executive Director of WFM-Institute for Global Policy

The second panel presented the origins of the norm and their current challenges. Bernard Miyet outlined the evolution of humanitarian interventions in the context of his role in the UN and later in the OSCE. Mr. Miyet mentioned the potential of the UN Charter, despite the nature of the Security Council, to make significant progress on protecting civilians. He recalled that an OSCE mission was sent to Chechnya in the 90s with the consent of Russia. Tom Weiss mentioned that the concept of R2P had advanced very quickly considering the extent of the debate on protection started in the late 80s. Conscious of the recent setbacks in institutional advancements of R2P, Mr. Weiss recommended that civil society develop concrete long-term strategies in all regions. Mr. Weiss also spoke of the new Global Centre on the Responsibility to Protect and its focus on research and advocacy.

William Pace gave an overview of international developments on human rights, including major advances over the past few years, such as the Human Rights Council, the Peacebuilding Commission and the International Criminal Court. He spoke about the context around the endorsement of R2P in paragraphs 138-139 of the World Summit Outcome Document, and how it had been negotiated with many elements of the ICISS report left out, such as the criteria limiting intervention and the Responsibility to Rebuild. Mr. Pace also reminded that governments from the global South had been crucial in these negotiations in support of R2P, including Argentina, Rwanda and South Africa. Seeing the recent institutional setbacks in the advance of R2P, the need for a coherent global civil society strategy is evident. He explained the efforts of WFM-IGP with partners and support from Human Rights Watch, Refugees International, Oxfam and International Crisis Group to consult with civil society on the eventual creation of a coalition on R2P (discussed on the 2nd day).

Session 3: Luis Peral, European Union Institute for Security Studies
Ariane Arpa, Executive Director of Intermon Oxfam in Spain
Lotte Leicht, Head of Human Rights Watch EU advocacy
Hugues Moret, Director of Cabinet of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and
Human Rights

Chair: Jean-Marie Fardeau, Paris Office Director at Human Rights Watch.

The third panel focused on civil society perspectives on R2P and the European Union. Luis Peral spoke of the strong commitment of the EU to the protection of civilians, and the overlaps between R2P and the human security agenda. He argued that if Member States were reluctant to use specific R2P wording, it should not prevent R2P measures (preventive, reactive, rebuilding) from being implemented under the broader protection agenda. Such measures should definitely include more ositive conditionality, which has not been applied consistently yet. He also stressed the need to strengthen the civilian components of peace keeping operations. Ariane Arpa called on the EU to integrate civilian protection in the upcoming revision of the 2003 European Security Strategy. She also suggested that the EU should support regional organizations and offer more coherence vis--vis R2P in defense, diplomatic and economic policies. Finally, Lotte Leicht, head of HRW EU advocacy, outlined suggestions for how the EU should think about operationalizing R2P. Focusing on early-warning, early preparedness, conflict management and then post-conflict rebuilding, she provided numerous recommendations, including:
- Identifying early-warning indicators which can then be used publically by EU Special Envoys in statements and reports for increased transparency and better communication with Brussels on preventive warnings;
- Strengthening the capacity and building expertise and knowledge within the EU on sanctions, incentives, and punitive measures
- Better and more systematic enforcement of human rights clauses in cooperation agreement between EU and various countries and / or regional organizations
- Increased information-sharing with the International Criminal Court since the EU has a Memorandum with the ICC
 

Hugues Moret joined the panel to deliver the final key note speech on Frances position and strategy on R2P. Concerning the French presidency of the EU, Mr. Moret offered recommendations on how to advance the debate on R2P, including the need to clarify and reaffirm the relevance of the concept in Europe by insisting on a debate on R2P with all 27 Member States. He confirmed that France will aim to include R2P in the revised European Security Strategy, and also announced that France was to include R2P nationally in the upcoming foreign policy white paper. He concluded by saying that civil society has a crucial role to play in taking ownership of the norm and mainstreaming it into the media and academia in order to address the lack of debates on R2P.
 

26 June 2008: Enhancing civil society activity and capacity on R2P
 

1st session: Building a global coalition on R2P
 

Day-2 of the roundtable focused on enhancing civil society activity and capacity on the Responsibility to Protect. After presenting the history behind the agreement of R2P in the 2005 World Summit Document, William Pace and Sapna Chhatpar gave an introduction to a draft concept paper outlining possible principles, structure and activities for a global Coalition on R2P. The concept paper was drafted based on prior consultative meetings with NGOs worldwide. They explained that the goals of a Coalition could to be to protect the integrity of R2P by educating and advocating for proper use of the concept, to activate a network of NGOs to lobby for norm-building through international, regional and sub-regional endorsements, and for the application of R2P to country-specific situations.
 

In the discussion that ensued, participants offered concerns and recommendations, including on the following:
1. R2P Coalition and humanitarian organizations: the Coalition must ensure broad representation of organizations to its membership and limit what it will do in its name to avoid compromising humanitarian NGOs who may not be able to take positions on conflict-specific issues.
2. Access to information and materials on R2P through a global Coalition emphasizing that preventive action is a value-added for all groups, including those who do not take position on R2P situations
3. Clarifying the norm is a priority by building consensus within NGOs in liaison with research institutes and like-minded policy-makers.
4. Spread awareness by extending the R2P discourse to the media. This will include translating the norm to a clear and simple message for advocacy
5. Holding governments accountable to their commitment on R2P is a major function of a network on R2P by reminding officials of their engagement and advocating for the use of R2P language at the international, regional, and national levels. Participants called for a International Secretariat to act like a watchdog in monitoring whether states are acting upon their commitment.
 

2nd session: Civil Society Presentations: Advancing R2P
 

This panel was chaired by Elise Ford from Oxfam International-Brussels, who introduced the following speakers and their presentations about their organizations work on R2P, the challenges they see for promoting R2P in the region and recommendation on how to overcome them.

Neil Campbell, Director of Advocacy for International Crisis Group (Brussels) spoke of the conceptual misperceptions on R2P and the institutional challenges that ICG addresses. Strategies include working at both high-level and bottom-up level to combat these challenges, and to direct advocacy to individuals at the European level who are active and receptive to R2P.
Caroline Baudot, Director of Crisis Action (France) explained Crisis Actions role in organizing thematic/conflict-specific conferences related to R2P such as setting up meetings on early-warning in emerging crises to develop joint reactions and recommendations. She spoke of the current duality of R2P, where the norm needs to be reinforced by being increasingly invoked, but controversies and lack of clarification of the concept prevent organizations from referring to it.
Nils Carstensen, Senior Advisor at DanChurchAid (Denmark) explained his organizations work in alleviating suffering and addressing root causes of conflicts at the local level. Using church leaders to bring forth advocacy and setting up workshops with ministries are examples of their work on protection of civilians.
Mark Burgess, Director at the World Security Institute in Brussels, described the role that a think-tank organization could take in clarifying the scope of the norm and address its misperceptions through research, publications and research.
(More details on their recommendations will be provided in the final report).
 

In their presentations and the discussions that followed, participants came up with recommendations on furthering R2P, including the following:
- Develop a toolbox of all non-military tools available at the international, regional and nation level to guide advocacy ;
- Create technical talking points and materials on what the European Union and national governments can do to increase early warning and early reaction;
- Organize meetings and workshops for regional and national institution representatives to educate on R2P and offer specific strategies on how to apply the norm;
- Push for the enforcement of preventive measures such as developing early-warning indicators to be used in public reports of Special Envoys, and lobby around the adoption of an EU code of conduct on arms exports;
- Advocate at the EU level for debates on R2P including the endorsement of the criteria around intervention laid out in ICISS;
- Ensure a close relationship between research institutions, experts on R2P at the international, regional and local level and civil society.

Next steps:

This roundtable was a first meeting of NGOs on how to carry R2P forward in Europe and to discuss methods of organizing for more effective advancement of the norm. While there were no concrete decisions on how to move forward collectively, NGOs agreed on the need for more discussions on what R2P means and how it can be incorporated into NGOs mandates. Participants expressed interest in convening another civil society meeting on R2P in Europe after consulting with their organizations/communities. Participants also recognized the need for a loose network of NGOs on R2P at the global level to exchange information, access material, use alert systems on situations when R2P needs to be invoked and lobby effectively for action.

WFM-IGP will send a final report detailing the discussion from both days in the next few weeks, to which participants are invited to make changes/edits. In addition, WFM-IGP is holding consultations on R2P in Ghana on 30-31 July, and will send in early fall a report detailing the outcomes of each consultation and the steps forward in building an R2P Coalition.

Conference Report:

Dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect: European Perspectives