R2P and the stench of the dead global conscience

In response to last week’s column titled ‘R2P RIP: Its grave is in Gaza’, Iranian Ambassador Alireza Delkosh makes a comment:

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle is one of the hundreds of rules of international humanitarian law that obligates states to intervene and protect human beings whenever their dignity and existence are threatened—regardless of their nationality, ethnicity, race, religion, or language.

In fact, this principle is a continuation of Article 42 of the United Nations Charter, under which the UN Security Council can (and must) take military action against any state that threatens international peace and security. In doing so, it may override the general prohibition on the use of force when such intervention is necessary to maintain or restore peace. In other words, under the principle of collective action set forth in the UN Charter, when international peace and security are threatened and non-military measures under Article 41 prove inadequate, the Security Council may override the principle of state sovereignty and authorize military action against the offending state. Similarly, when there is a serious violation of the right to life and human dignity, and the relevant government is either unwilling or unable to protect its own citizens, other states may invoke the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle to intervene and assist vulnerable populations.

However, it seems the international community has yet to acknowledge that the mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza has crossed the boundaries of genocide — and that the number of civilian casualties has not, in their view, reached a so-called “red line.”!

These bitter realities reek of the stench of a dead global conscience.