The Responsibility to Protect, the Right to Assist and the Right to Resist

Abstract

The Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) has come under heavy criticism following its invocation during the 2011 intervention in the Libyan conϐlict. The perceived unworkability of RtoP for future intervention to prevent atrocity crimes has formed the basis of continued development of the concept of the 'right to assist', which has emerged in the nonviolence literature as a means of responding to the needs and requests of individuals engaged in campaigns of nonviolent resistance. Although couched in the language of a need to respect bottom-up actors engaged in nonviolent resistance, the nonviolence literature from which RtoA has emerged indicates reasons to be cautious. Drawing on the developing critical nonviolent resistance literature, this study suggests that efforts to discipline and restrict resistance to nonviolent forms of conϐlict, and indeed to limit conϐlict to the terms established by external actors, seem to inherently afϐlict the concept of RtoA.