The responsibility to protect: A CFP condensed introduction to the report of the international commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty

Abstract

At the United Nations General Assembly in 1999, and again in 2000, Secretary‐General Kofi Annan made compelling pleas to the international community to try to find, once and for all, a new consensus on how to approach the moral and operational questions of when and how the international community ought to intervene in armed conflict. It was in response to this challenge that the Government of Canada, together with a group of major foundations, announced at the General Assembly in September 2000 the establishment of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS). Following a year of discussions with global scope and comprehensive research, the Commission completed its Report and released it in December 2001. An introductory portion of that Report is provided herein. It provides a background sketch to a paper that follows it, written by one of the principal authors of the ICISS Report.