Institutional responsibility and the R2P doctrine in the Global South: The crises in Libya and Syria

In recent decades, armed political conflicts, ethnic hostilities, and civil wars have led to genocide, war crimes, and widespread human rights violations, followed by forced migration throughout the world. Consequently, in 2001 the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) introduced the concept of “The Responsibility to Protect”, demanding an urgent reexamination of the theory and practice of “humanitarian intervention”. The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine restates the duty of nations to prevent and halt genocide, mass atrocities, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. In this chapter, the R2P doctrine is elaborated under three perspectives: State practice, legal norms, and international politics. The nexus between these perspectives is explained using two case studies: The Libyan Crisis (2011) and the Syrian Crisis (2011-2021). Along the spectrum of, and within the international human rights regime, the two cases use the R2P doctrine to explore the existing gap in the institutional responsibility and protection of vulnerable people in the Global South.