Commentary: Who cares?: The Primary Bearer of the Responsibility to Protect

Abstract

Ten years after its formal embracement at the 2005 World Summit, the concept of responsibility to protect (R2P) has become a very popular subject of academic inquiry. The Peace Palace Library catalogue lists well over 550 entries on the topic in this period. These contributions address a large variety of different topics relating to the contents, (legal) nature and application of the concept. In the face of factual scenarios that potentially lend themselves to an invocation of the R2P (Syria is an obvious example), such inquiries remain critical.