Responsibility to Protect: A Solution or Just Another Problem?

Abstract

The doctrine of human rights has long been accepted and considered customary law. However, the law of a sovereign state accompanied by the principle of nonintervention, based on Westphalian principles, is also entrenched in international relations, specifically in keeping peace among countries since World War II. Thus, the intersection of these two principles — human rights and the sovereign state — has been the cause of much heated debate in the U.N., and has caused and continues to leave a gap in international law and norms. This paper seeks to point out the initial gap and problem in reconciling the two — human rights and the sovereign state, followed by a discussion of a current solution to the problem being set forth and developed by the U.N., the Responsibility to Protect. The paper will conclude with a discussion of the problems still innate in the Responsibility to Protect. This paper will not attempt to create a solution to the reconciliation problem of human rights and the sovereign state or a solution to the problems with the Responsibility to Protect.