The Libyan crisis is prompting a broad debate on the need for international intervention in the country which includes the possible establishment of a no fly zone to stop Moammar Gadhafi killing his own people from the air.
The UN Security Council is still considering the international community’s response to the Libyan crisis and it is essential that the Council bases its response around the Responsibility to Protect or (R2P) doctrine. R2P originated from the work of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS). R2P was embraced at the United Nations World Summit in 2005 by a unanimous declaration of the UN General Assembly and was reaffirmed in April 2006 by UN Security Council Resolution 1674.
R2P establishes unprecedented international responsibilities to prevent and respond to situations where war crimes, genocide, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity are imminent or in progress.
R2P rests on two basic premises: first, that State sovereignty implies responsibility for the protection of its citizens; and second, that the international community has a responsibility to protect civilians when a State is unwilling or unable to prevent or stop abuses inflicted as a result of internal war, insurgency, repression or State failure. R2P comprises a continuum of measures for the international community ranging from prevention to rebuilding.
The people of Libya are calling for the international community to protect them from a State that is inflicting human rights abuses on its own people. It is essential that the United Nations Security Council hears these calls, has the courage to endorse the application of R2P in Libya and delivers a mandate under Chapter VII of the UN Charter to establish and enforce a no fly zone over Libya.
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