Asia-Pacific at the UN 

 “Overall, the greatest positive shift in favor of the Responsibility to Protect from 2005 appeared to come from the Asia-Pacific region”  - Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect report on the July 2009 UN General Assembly debate on the Responsibility to Protect

The Responsibility to Protect principle was developed and endorsed by the UN General Assembly and Security Council.  As such, the UN remains the paramount vehicle for implementing the R2P principle.   As the quote from a 2009 report by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect shows, Asia-Pacific governments make a particularly positive and useful contribution to the UN's consideration of R2P.  The Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect tracks this contribution and analyses it in these pages.  

Click here for Key Documents from the UN related to R2P.  

General Assembly

The General Assembly is the UN’s principal decision-making body.  Every UN Member State is represented in the Assembly and has an equal vote.  At the 2005 World Summit, the General Assembly committed to continuing its consideration of the Responsibility to Protect and in 2009 held a plenary debate on the principle and issued a resolution (A/63/L80, Rev 1) which (1) noted receipt of the UN Secretary-General’s Report on Implementing the Responsibility to Protect, (2) observed that the Assembly had undertaken a fruitful debate on the report and (3) expressed an intention to continue that debate. 

 

Reports

October 2009: 'Asia-Pacific at the UN General Assembly Dialogue', Report,  Final_UN_GA_Debate_July_2009

Security Council

The Responsibility to Protect places special obligations on the United Nations Security Council.  In Paragraph 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, Member States agreed that, “we are prepared to take collective action, in a timely and decisive manner, through the Security Council, in accordance with the Charter, including Chapter VII, on a case-by case basis and in cooperation with relevant regional organizations as appropriate, should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”.  The Security Council therefore has a special responsibility to make judgments about situations where peaceful means are inadequate and national authorities ‘manifestly failing’ to protect their populations.  In such cases, it should take timely and decisive action to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The Council comprises ten non-permanent members, elected by the General Assembly for two-year terms and not eligible for immediate re-election and five permanent members. Each Council member has one vote. Decisions on procedural matters are made by an affirmative vote of at least nine of the 15 members. Decisions on substantive matters require nine votes, including the concurring votes of all five permanent members. This allows permanent members to veto proposed resolutions.
Asia-Pacific’s representatives in the Security Council are:

Permanent Member

China

Non-Permanent Members

Viet Nam (until 2009); Japan (until 2010) 

New Member Lebanon will replace Viet Nam on 1 January 2010 

 

Reports

Update Report Japan on Sri Lanka (May 2009) 

Protection of Civilians and the Responsibility to Protect Udpate Report  (February 2009)

Protection of Civilians and the Responsibility to Protect (June 2008)