United Nations action in Sri Lanka and the responsibility to protect

Abstract

This chapter examines the report’s key findings and evaluates its implications for the implementation of the RtoP principle. It examines ways in which implementation of Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) within the United Nations (UN) system might help strengthen the UN’s capacity to respond to protection crises similar to the one in Sri Lanka in 2008-2009. The Internal Review Panel repeatedly stressed that the UN system generated ample evidence and analysis to predict well in advance that a militarized crisis in the Wanni would pose serious dangers to the. The Internal Review Panel’s report on the UN’s actions in Sri Lanka in 2008-2009 demonstrates the need for renewed commitment to the implementation of RtoP across the UN system. RtoP goals are achieved, and working practices strengthened, through the act of doing these different sorts of activities. The UN should review its actions in response to every crisis involving large-scale risks to civilian populations.