Citizenship Rights and the Prevention of Atrocity Crimes: Contributions to the General Assembly dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect: State Responsibility and Prevention
Published: 1 Sep 2013
Citizenship Rights and the Prevention of Atrocity Crimes: Contributions to the General Assembly dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect: State Responsibility and Prevention
The adoption of the responsibility to protect as part of the World Summit outcome document represented a historic commitment to protecting populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity (“atrocity crimes”). By affirming the responsibility of states to protect populations within their borders, and by affirming the right of the international community to take action if they fail to do so, the emerging norm frames relations between the citizen and the state as one of mutual responsibility rather than that of a dominating state imposing unlimited control over the individual.
On 11 September 2013, the UN General Assembly will convene a dialogue to discuss the Secretary-General’s latest report on the implementation of the responsibility to protect: “The Responsibility to Protect: State Responsibility and Prevention”. The International Refugee Rights Initiative (IRRI) welcomes the report is hopeful that this will form the basis of an open and useful dialogue in the UN General Assembly, and will provide a guide for states wishing to take action to prevent atrocity crimes. This paper is an effort to input IRRI’s specific expertise on the issue of citizenship as relevant to the broader issue of the operationalisation of the responsibility to protect and the systematic or structural prevention of atrocity crimes.