The Human Rights Law Resource Centre and the Institute of Legal Studies at the Australian Catholic University present
The Responsibility to Protect: Protection and Intervention in response to Mass Atrocity Crimes
27 and 28 November 2009, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne
Confirmed speakers for this major conference include the Hon Gareth Evans AO AC, the Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser AO AC, the Hon Bob McMullan (Parliamentary Secretary on International Development Assistance), Prof Ramesh Thakur (Canadian Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty), Prof Alex Bellamy (Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect), Prof Joseph Camilleri, Prof Spencer Zifcak and Dr Phoebe Wynne-Pope.
Background
At the United Nations Summit in 2005, the worlds political leaders agreed to adopt the principle of the responsibility to protect. This principle, and its practice, is designed to ensure that every possible step is taken by individual nations, and by the international community, to ensure that mass atrocity crimes, such as those which occurred in Rwanda, Kosovo and East Timor, will not occur again.
In January 2009, the Secretary-General of the United Nations delivered a report to the UN General Assembly in which he fleshed out the meaning and operation of the new principle. Distinguishing it from the prior doctrine of humanitarian intervention, the report emphasized that the primary responsibility for preventing mass atrocities rested with the nation state concerned. However, where a state is unable or unwilling to take preventative steps, the responsibility must shift to the international community to ensure that genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or ethnic cleansing do not eventuate.
The purpose of this conference is to explain the parameters of this new principle of international law and political practice, to address the practicalities and problems of its implementation, to consider its potential application in the Asia-Pacific region, and to tackle again the vexed question of military intervention for humanitarian purposes.
The conference will be of interest to those concerned with international law, international relations, international aid and development, Asia-Pacific politics, and Australia’s role in ensuring security and well-being in our immediate region.
For further information, program and registration, see: http://www.acu.edu.au/acu_national/the_university/conferences/r2p/.
