Description
Despite the adoption of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ (R2P) in 2005, mass atrocity violence continues to plague the international landscape. R2P attempts to set a standard of appropriate behaviour for states and other relevant actors vis-à-vis the prevention of, and response to, the four mass crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. However, the means of holding states to account for their R2P commitments are heavily politicised. Beyond the realpolitik-infused United Nations (UN) Security Council, there is a lack of institutionalised means for enforcing R2P in practice, or for consistently highlighting R2P violations. The result is that R2P breaches are all too common, meaning there is an urgent need to find ways to hold states accountable to their R2P commitments. Applying a transitional cosmopolitan approach, this article examines an entirely new and supplementary reform measure to assist in R2P’s implementation. The article calls for the creation of an ‘R2P Review Commission’. This is a suggestion for an independent body composed of elected experts to scrutinise state practice across R2P’s three pillars. It argues that an R2P Review Commission is a mechanism aligned with the transitional cosmopolitan approach, providing an effective and feasible supplementary body to enhance R2P’s implementation.
