The Responsibility to Protect and the problem of military intervention

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has come a long way in a relatively short space of time. From inauspicious beginnings, the principle was endorsed by the General Assembly in 2005 and unanimously reaffirmed by the Security Council in 2006 (Resolution 1674). However, the principle remains hotly contested primarily because of its association with humanitarian intervention and the pervasive belief that its principal aim is to create a pathway for the legitimization of unilateral military intervention. This article sets forth the argument that a deepening consensus on R2P is dependent on its dissociation from the politics of humanitarian intervention and suggests that one way of doing this is by abandoning the search for criteria for decision‐making about the use of force, one of the centre pieces of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty 2001 report that coined the phrase R2P. Criteria were never likely to win international support, the article maintains, and were less likely to improve decision‐making on how best to respond to major humanitarian crises. Nevertheless, R2P can make an important contribution to thinking about the problem of military intervention by mitigating potential ‘moral hazards’, overcoming the tendency of international actors to focus exclusively on military methods and giving impetus to efforts to operationalize protection in the field.     

The Responsibility to Protect and the International Criminal Court: counteracting the crisis

The establishment of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) process and the International Criminal Court (ICC) were seen by many to constitute significant progress in the protection of human rights. However, these institutions are now in crisis, due in large part to their failure to prevent or prosecute recent acute human rights abuses in Syria. There have been two responses to this crisis: the first assumes that the crisis is caused by the current structures of international governance, in particular the power of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), and calls for radical reform. The second sees possibilities within the current structure and advocates making R2P and the ICC more closely aligned under UNSC control. The article argues that both responses are mistaken and sets out an argument in favour of refocusing on the complementary nature of each institution. The Court's most successful actions have been in exercising the powers afforded by its complementary jurisdiction in situations such as Colombia. Similarly, R2P works more successfully at preventing conflict and changing expectations of acceptable state behaviour than it does at confronting situations in which large‐scale violence has begun. The article argues that the ICC and R2P should focus on ‘positive complementarity’ agendas, with the ICC devoting more resources to assisting states to build legal capacity in order to deter future conflict through stronger domestic criminal systems, and advocates of R2P focusing less on intervention in live conflict situations and more on building within states the capacity and resources to protect their own populations.     

A chronic protection problem: the DPRK and the Responsibility to Protect

The Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) is arguably the world's most chronic abuser of human rights. In an unprecedented move, a Commission of Inquiry established by the UN's Human Rights Council accused the DPRK government of systematic violations of human rights amounting to crimes against humanity. In so doing, the Commission succeeded in putting human rights in the DPRK on the global agenda. Within months the UN's General Assembly and Security Council had joined the human rights body in examining the issue. This article explains the emergence of this new engagement with human rights in the DPRK, showing its relation to the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ principle. It charts the growing sense of frustration felt at the lack of progress on human rights in DPRK and shows how this was manifested in the General Assembly's decision to pursue the Commission's recommendations and call on the Security Council to take concrete steps. Despite this, however, the article shows that there are powerful obstacles in the way of a more robust international approach to human rights in the DPRK and counsels a less confrontational approach focused on engaging China and building trust within the Security Council.     

Russia,humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect: the case of Syria

Western analysis perceives Russian approaches to issues of humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) as running counter to western‐inspired international norms. This debate has surfaced with some vigour over Russia's policy in the Syria conflict where, in order to protect its strategic interests in Syria, an obstructionist Moscow has been accused of ignoring humanitarian considerations and allowing time for the Assad regime to crush the opposition by vetoing a resolution threatening to impose sanctions. While Russian approaches are undoubtedly explained by a desire to maximize its growing political influence and trade advantages to serve its legitimate foreign policy interests, and while Moscow's attitudes to intervention and R2P exhibit important differences from those of the major western liberal democracies, its arguments are in fact framed within a largely rational argument rooted in ‘traditional’ state‐centred international law. This article first highlights key arguments in the scholarly literature on intervention and R2P before going on to examine the evolution of Russian views on these issues. The analysis then focuses on the extent to which Moscow's arguments impact on international legal debates on the Libya and Syria conflicts. The article then seeks to explore how Russian approaches to intervention/R2P reflect fundamental trends in its foreign policy thinking and its quest for legitimacy in a negotiated international order. Finally, it attempts to raise some important questions regarding Russia's role in the future direction of the intervention/R2P debates.     

Project to Protect Natural Forests

Gungjor County in Qamdois situated on the middlesection of the Jinsha-jiang River,on the upperreaches of the Yangtze Riverand in the northern part ofHenduan Mountains.Foreststhere total 220,198 hectares,and the forested area totals60,791 hectares.They com-bine to function as a naturalscreen on the Yangtze's upperreaches.     

通过推动人的行为改变来保护湿地

中国湿地资源居亚洲第一位,世界第四位,是世界湿地面积和种类最丰富的国家之一。根据第二次全国湿地资源调查的结果,全国湿地总面积5360．26万公顷。因此,在国际湿地保护领域,中国的地位举足轻重。     

请拉起手,为保护濒危的白鹤宣誓 《保护白鹤法库国际宣言》在辽宁法库国际白鹤节上签署发布

<正>由国际鹤类基金会、中国野生动物保护协会、沈阳市人民政府主办的第六届沈阳法库国际白鹤节,3月27日在辽宁省法库县正式启动。来自国际鹤类基金会以及中、美、俄、日、韩、蒙古等国家的官员、专家、学者聚集法库,向全世界发布《保护白鹤法库国际宣言》,并向国际社会提出建议每年3月27日为世界白鹤日。     

鼓励更广泛利益相关者参与遗产保护事业 聚焦私营企业合作伙伴边会

<正>自1972年联合国教科文组织《保护世界文化和自然遗产公约》颁布以来,全球至今已有1031处世界遗产,它们代表了人类共同的财富。保护世界遗产的突出普遍价值这一任务的挑战不断增加,尤其在如今复杂的全球环境中,世界遗产不断受到城镇化、旅游、自然灾害、污染、战争冲突等因素的影响。保护和管理世界遗产是一项长期和艰巨的任务,需要得到持续不断的资金和技术支持。其中来自利益相关者,特别是私营企业的支持,在遗产保护资源筹措和意识提升方面,正发挥着越来越重要的作用。     

Assessing Measures Designed to Protect the Homeland

Some general parameters are proposed for evaluating homeland security measures that seek to make potential targets notably less vulnerable to terrorist attack, and these are then applied to specific policy considerations. Since the number of targets is essentially unlimited, since the probability that any given target will be attacked is near zero, since the number and competence of terrorists is limited, since target-selection is effectively a near-random process, and since a terrorist is free to redirect attention from a protected target to an unprotected one of more or less equal consequence, protection seems to be sensible only in a limited number of instances.     

湖北护林古石碑

天然林保护在湖北有悠久的历史,现已发现的明清时代的护林古石碑有十余通,内容十分丰富,按类型分为官方型护林石碑和民间型护林石碑两类。为我们探讨湖北古代森林献信息资源状况,护林思想及护林措施等提供了珍贵的实物史料。     

致敬,中国野保志愿者

<正>9月20日,中国野生动物保护协会志愿者2018秋冬季百队百天护飞行动在全国范围内展开,全国各地数以万计的野保志愿者,在中国野生动物保护协会统一部署和志愿者委员会具体指导下,紧密联系所在地的森林公安等相关部门,迅速而广泛地展开了以打击捕鸟贩鸟违法犯罪行为、收缴捕鸟工具、救助和放飞野鸟、宣传普及野生动物保护法及爱鸟护鸟知识等为内容的护飞行动。行动开展以来,捷报频传,令人鼓舞。护飞行动中,各地志愿者组织面临或经历着一系列难题:经费保障不足、违法者暴力抗拒,     

Locating Vehicle Inspection Stations to Protect a Transportation Network

We develop a new conceptual approach to locating inspection stations for hazardous vehicles, prevention, and compare it to the previous, punitive, philosophy of the flow-capturing location model. We implement this preventive protection philosophy with a new mixed integer program that maximizes hazard avoidance by locating a number of inspection stations to detect and remove hazardous vehicles as early in their trips as possible. We test the model's performance and analyze the spatial characteristics of solutions simulating several potential applications. Our computations demonstrate that a relaxed integer-linear program is overly demanding computationally and that a simple greedy heuristic lacks robustness. We suggest further approaches to developing more powerful and efficient solution methods.     

保护中华白海豚 维护海洋生物多样性

<正>中华白海豚,国家Ⅰ级重点保护野生动物,是水生野生动物保护的旗舰物种,也是近岸海洋生态系统的指示物种,具有重要的生态、科研和文化价值。2017年12月5日,中华白海豚保护行动计划(2017-2026年)启动仪式暨中华白海豚保护联盟成立大会在福建厦门成功举办。农业部渔业渔政管理局、农业部长江流域渔政监督管理办公室、中国水产科学研究院、全国水生野     

华北油田 一个负责任大国企的绿色今生

<正>盛夏,河北任丘华北油田。从华北油田公司办公楼放眼望去,丽日晴空下,眼睛被绿色填满。间或跃动着火红、米黄和高级灰,那是建筑物和基础设施的色彩,特别是其中的红和黄,是中国石油标识的原色诠释:中国石油朝气蓬勃,前程似锦。中国石油奉献能源,创造和谐。     

善待地球 保护好生命的承载之舟

<正>水能载舟亦能覆舟地球是人类的家园,也是我们生命的承载之舟。尽管地球是太阳系中一颗普通的行星,但它在许多方面都是独一无二的。比如,它是太阳系中唯一一颗面积大部分被水覆盖的行星,也是目前所知唯一一颗有生命存在的星球。人类是地球上的新客,从早期智人的出现算起,至今只有20多万年的历史。这段时间与地球46亿年的悠久岁月相比,不过是短暂的一瞬。地球为人类的生存、繁衍和发展提供了必要的资源和生态环境,它孕育了智慧的人类,铸就了我们健康的身心,从而使我们在发展经济的事业中精力充沛,创造无数的文明奇迹。人类一出现,就与地球形成     

保护少数民族地区民俗旅游资源之我见

少数民族地区民俗文化旅游开发的作用　随着经济的发展和人们生活水平的提高,旅游者对文化旅游的需求日益增加.中国少数民族民俗旅游正成为一门备受青睐的旅游形式,少数民族文化因素渗透在当今旅游活动的各个方面,是少数民族地区旅游客体吸引力的源泉。     

非遗保护:地方文化馆如何做

非物质文化遗产保护是一项开创性的抢救历史文化的工程,是惠及子孙后代的德政工程。积极推进非物质文化遗产保护,有利于促进和谐文化建     

《检证·战争责任》读后

一2005年是世界反法西斯战争和中国的抗日战争胜利60周年,也是日本战败60周年。对世界上许多国家来说,这是值得纪念的一年。而在日本,发行量占首位的《读卖新闻》做出了一系列出人意料的举措,成为60周年之际各家媒体中最闪亮的“明星”。2005年6月4日,《读卖新闻》发表了长篇社     

The Responsibility of Science for the Future of Mankind

Abstract

Science and technology have brought immense benefits to man, yet through them he has become divorced from nature and he has failed to understand them. Adverse effects have been deliberately hidden, and when they became obvious, have turned science into a scapegoat. Scientists are here presented as unconcerned with the social consequences of their work, whether it affects industry or politics. The endless scientific future is now seen to have strict limits, and, the author proposes, scientists must devote themselves to the problems of mankind's future. Above all, scientists must explain their work in a language which all can understand, so that man can feel again at ease in his scientific civilization.