The responsibility to protect in contemporary International Law: Between the conceptual construction and the international practice

Abstract

The Responsibility to Protect is making its way in the international legal order based on a contemporary interpretation of the structural Principles of the International Law. From a theoretical perspective, the concept of "responsibility to protect" has achieved a significant degree of acceptance, both by the scientific doctrine and by States and International Organizations, although its effectiveness in specific situations of the international practice is still to be seen. However, a notion of this kind is not only displacing other traditional figures such as "the intervention of humanity" but, above all, it modifies the legal perception of some principles as essential as the sovereignty of States or the prohibition of the use of force in international relations. At the heart of the matter, "the responsibility to protect" is consolidating and, at the same time, the concept of International Community is acquiring greater practical meaning and it is becoming more necessary in the attempt to advocate, with greater intensity, the defence of human rights.