How can a small state such as Norway, with its seat in the UN Security Council, prevent atrocities like genocide and crimes against humanity? Is the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine too contested in the current world order? What are the lessons learned from other elected members of the UN Security Council? The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies hosts an open seminar to discuss these timely and urgent matters. The seminar is hosted by Dr. Ellen Stensrud, researcher at the Norwegian Holocaust Center.
Keynote speaker is Karen Smith, former UN Special Adviser for the Responsibility to Protect.
The seminar will be streamed here.
Agenda
10-10.30 Coffee and registration
10.30: Seminar
Keynote: Karen Smith, former Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect: Atrocity prevention, the responsibility to protect and the changing world order.
o Discussant: Cecilie Hellestveit, Norwegian Academy of International Law.
o Discussant: Angela Muvumba Sellström, Nordic Africa Institute.
o Discussant: Kristoffer Lidén, PRIO.
12.30: Lunch
Keynote speaker
Karen Smith was appointed as Special Adviser of the Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect on 7 January 2019. Currently a lecturer in International Relations at the Institute for History at Leiden University, Netherlands, and an honorary research associate at the University of Cape Town, South Africa.
Background
In 2020, the world marked the 15th anniversary of the unanimous adoption of R2P. R2P was meant to catalyze national and international action to prevent atrocities as witnessed in Rwanda and Srebrenica in the 1990s. However, R2P has lost some of its universal support – in part due to the controversies surrounding the international R2P intervention in Libya and in part because governments are not able or willing to implement the promise R2P makes. Political actors and diplomats may prefer other concepts, such as Protection of Civilians (PoC). At the same time, calls from activists in Myanmar show the normative strength of the R2P principle, across regional divides.
Regardless of the status of R2P, future occurrence of mass atrocity crimes will require new prevention efforts and protection of populations at risk. In this seminar we ask what role a small state like Norway can play to prevent mass atrocities, against the backdrop of an increasingly illiberal world order.
This project on Nordic approaches to atrocity prevention at the UN is co-organized by Martin Mennecke (University of Southern Denmark), Ellen E. Stensrud (The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies) and Angela Muvumba Sellström (The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala). We have received funding from the Nordic research councils in the humanities and social sciences (NOS-HS) to conduct workshops and seminars on Nordic approaches to R2P and atrocity prevention. We seek to identify characteristic features and contribute to enhanced policies and practice, both in the individual countries and, if possible, as part of a common Nordic approach.
For questions about the seminar, contact us here.