2016 Annual Lecture - Professor Alex Bellamy

Professor Alex Bellamy

Implementing R2P: Progress, Challenges and the Next 10 years

Photo courtesy of Jess Gifkins 

On December 8th 2016, we were delighted to welcome Professor Alex Bellamy for our first Annual Lecture on ‘Implementing R2P: Progress, Challenges and the Next 10 years’. The event also marked the official launch of the European Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (ECR2P) at the University of Leeds.

Co-Director, Professor Jason Ralph, introduced the ECR2P and recognised the important role the Centre will have in advancing research in the area of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), including bringing together a wide range of academics researching on the R2P.

Lecture Overview
When it comes to R2P, most of the normative struggle is now behind us while most of the operational challenges are still before us. Recognizing that a gap has emerged between the world’s normative commitment to R2P and its ability to make this principle a living reality, this talk called for a more comprehensive approach to the practice of R2P. This must include the full range of actors that play a role in inhibiting atrocity crimes and protecting vulnerable populations, including the new European Centre for R2P at the University of Leeds.

Professor Bellamy’s talk combined analysis of the normative effort to win support for the R2P principle with an examination of international responses to major crises since 2009, such as those in the Middle East (Libya, Syria, Yemen) and sub-Saharan Africa (DRC, South Sudan, Mali, CAR), as well as some critical cases before that time (notably Kenya and Sri Lanka). It suggested that whilst tangible progress has been made, significant challenges remain ahead that will require a redoubling of effort.

A full audio recording of the event is available below: