Activate world summit norm to protect lives in Burundi

From the World Summit Outcome Document in 2005, the international community of at least 120 states adopted through consensus a new norm and concept of the responsibility to protect.

This was meant to protect populations against mass atrocities like genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

This norm was informed by the lessons from previous mass atrocities in Kosovo, Sbrenica, Rwanda and most recently the ongoing violent skirmishes in Libya and Syria and the role played by the international community. Responsibility to protect as opposed to protection of civilians (POC) can be implemented in both times of war and peace and only targets populations. POC is only implemented during armed conflicts and may only target an individual.

Basically, the responsibility to protect norm suggests that state sovereignty is no longer a privilege but a responsibility and that individuals or agents of state must be held accountable for any mass atrocities.

Responsibility to protect has three pillars: the sovereign and primary responsibility of protecting populations from the four mass atrocities lies with the state, where the state is unable or unwilling to protect its population from these atrocities, then the international community may assist and encourage the state to protect its people.

And the third states that when the state manifestly fails in protecting its population from these atrocities, then the international community will use all the necessary measures to protect these populations through a resolution of the UN Security Council.

The UN Security Council may implement this pillar in Burundi through a regional community like the African Union to protect populations with or without approval of the Burundi government. This can be the use of force to protect populations, placing of arms embargoes, economic sanctions and freezing assets of individuals and initiating the International Criminal Court process. Furthermore, the AU had adopted a similar concept immediately after the Rwandan genocide well before the World Summit Outcome Document of 2005.

This norm or concept is intended to prevent atrocities from happening as they always target a large population and the cost of these atrocities is continuing to be unbearable to the international community as they are over-stretching humanitarian assistance.

If any intervention is done during pillar one or two, then governance reform processes are inevitable including support in funding states, capacity building and strengthening of institutions through security sector reform, judicial service reform and reform of correctional services, constitutional review process among others by the state or through assistance from international community or partners. Implementing of interventions under pillars one and two will be informed by and depend on heavy investments by states or international community in early warning systems in collaboration with regional mechanisms like Ecowas.

However, responsibility to protect norm is still facing the challenge of being operationalised, though efforts by the Danish Government in partnership with the Global Centre of responsibility to protect in New York and Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana are spearheading the capacity building of states to further the conceptual, political, institutional and operational development of the responsibility to protect populations.