It is ten years since an international commission that I co-chaired gave birth to the concept of the Responsibility to Protect (“RtoP”), and six years since more than 150 heads of state and government endorsed it unanimously at the UN’s World Summit in 2005. The core idea was simple: stop arguing for a “right to intervene,” which inevitably generates a backlash, and talk instead about “responsibility” – that of every state to protect its own citizens from atrocities, but also that of the wider international community to act if a state is unable or unwilling to do so.
我所主持的一家国际委员会首次提出保护责任（“RtoP”）思想距今已经十年，该理念在2005年联合国世界首脑会议上获得150多位国家和政府首脑的一致认可距今也已六年了。其中的核心思想非常简单：不要再就“干涉权”问题争论不休，这样的思想肯定会引发强烈的反抗，相反应该提出“责任”理念——不仅各国有责任保护民众免受暴行的侵害，整个国际社会也有责任在国家不能或不愿这么做时采取行动。