보호책임의 발전과정과 국제법상 함의

The Evolution of "Responsibility to Protect" and Its Implications for International Law

This article examines the evolution of the concept of 'Responsibility to Protect'(R2P) since its inception in 2001, and contemplates its implications for international law. R2P reaffirms the primary responsibility of the sovereign State as innate in the concept of sovereignty, while emphasizing the residual responsibility of the international community to protect a population from threats of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. This basic principle of R2P was endorsed at the 2005 World Summit, and has since been developed through annual reports of the Secretary-General focusing on the detailed implementation mechanism of the R2P. Meanwhile, the invocation of R2P in the cases of Libya and Côte d'Ivoire, but not that of Syria, reminds us of its limits and constraints. This article examines how the discourse over R2P has been developed in three stages: 1) accepting the concept as a subject of international public discourse, 2) shaping concrete implementation mechanisms, and 3) reappraising the concept vis-a-vis its application in practice. The article then examines the implications for international law. Although there remains a tension and challenge at the heart of conceptualizing and operationalizing R2P, it has already played a decisive role in shaping international debates about human rights and humanitarian response. Indeed, R2P a priori enhances the human rights protection mechanism through emphasizing the primary responsibility of the sovereign State even while requiring the international community to assist the State in this duty, and triggering active engagement of the UN to fulfill the international community's residual responsibility to protect populations from grave humanitarian crisis. Meanwhile, a certain standard for evaluating the performance of the government of a sovereign State has emerged, which is in need of careful calibration and a more circumscribed approach. R2P provides opportunities to review the decision-making process of the UN Security Council, the mechanism for cooperation with regional organizations, and accountability for the responsibility while protecting (RwP), which would ultimately enhance the collective security system of the UN. R2P also promotes the rule of law of the international community by emphasizing the role of the International Criminal Court. The current discourse of R2P illustrates how this concept, originally suggested by an independent research institute, has been integrated into the international community, even while suggesting the role of 'norm entrepreneur' in the development process of the concept.