In a rare show of unanimity, Canadian Parliamentarians voted to recognize the genocide of the Rohingya people in Myanmar. A few days later, the UN General Committee recommended including the “responsibility to protect,” or R2P, on the agenda of the 73rd session of the UN General Assembly.
Only rights-abusing, massively-repressive regimes such as Myanmar, Syria and Venezuela voted against the General Committee’s recommendation. And rightly so. For R2P threatens states that fail to protect their citizens from mass atrocity crimes with various forms of intervention, up to and including the potential use of force as a last resort.
Despite this revolution in international law, the international community has failed to use the tools in our metaphorical toolbox, standing as bystander, if not enabler, to atrocity.
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