Responsibility to Peace: A Critique of R2P
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2011
Abstract
The NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999 led to the doctrine of R2P, which envisages the use of force in defence of human rights. But as the Kosovo conflict demonstrates, nothing is more destructive of human rights than war. The protection and promotion of human rights should be done through lawful and non-lethal means. This essay argues that citizens and states have a responsibility to peace as much as to human rights because human rights can only flourish in a condition of peace. This essay seeks to restore peace to its proper place in the discussion of international politics and human rights.
Recommended Citation
O'Connell, Mary Ellen, "Responsibility to Peace: A Critique of R2P" (2011). Book Chapters. 77.
https://scholarship.law.nd.edu/book_chapters/77
Publication Information
in Critical Perspectives on the Responsibility to Protect: Interrogating Theory and Practice (Philip Cunliffe ed. 2011). Reprinted from 4 J. Intervention & Statebuilding 39 (2010).