Conclusion to Protecting the Displaced: Deepening the Responsibility to Protect

In his January 2009 report, ‘Implementing the Responsibility to Protect’, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon noted that the protection of refugees and the internally displaced were important goals tied to R2P. The Secretary General has suggested that the time has come for the international community to translate R2P from words to deeds. It would seem that the improvement of the protection of displaced persons ought to be a central component of this task. How useful a concept is R2P for advancing the protection of refugees and IDPs? What challenges confront attempts to reconcile R2P and the protection of the displaced? How might these challenges be overcome? These are the kinds of questions that have motivated the contributors to this volume. The volume has brought together some of the leading thinkers and practitioners on refugee, IDP and R2P issues in order to examine the relationship between R2P and the protection of the displaced, and to consider the conceptual and practical challenges that confront the international community if R2P is to add value to efforts to protect displaced persons. In this conclusion, we want to very briefly draw some of the threads together and outline some of the broad themes of discussion in the preceding chapters about the relationship between R2P and the protection of refugees and IDPs. A number of contributors to this volume considered the conceptual dilemmas involved in linking R2P to IDP and refugee protection. Susan Martin and Roberta Cohen reflected on the history of protection, outlining how the scope of the protection regime has expanded since the end of the Cold War to include not just refugees who have crossed state boundaries but those who are internally displaced. Th is prompted consideration about how wide the umbrella of protection ought to extend (Roberta Cohen, Sara Davies), what contribution R2P could make in this regard (Erin Mooney), and what this should mean for the responsibilities of both sovereign states and international organisations (Luke Glanville, Emma Haddad, Phil Orchard, Alex Bellamy and Paul Williams).