Asia-Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect
The Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect is the regional centre for the Responsibility to Protect in the Asia Pacific Region. Situated on campus at Brisbane’s University of Queensland, the centre hosts on-site researchers to ‘deepen knowledge and advance policy on the Responsibility to Protect principle and mass atrocities prevention and response in the Asia Pacific region’.
History and background
The 2005 World Summit saw the largest gathering of leading government officials and heads of state, as well the discussion and adoption of the R2P principle in an attempt to prevent and effectively respond to genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. The three identified central pillars to the R2P principle are as follows:
Each State bears the primary responsibility to protect its population from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.
The international community has a responsibility to assist States in fulfilling this responsibility.
The international community has the responsibility to use appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means to protect populations from these crimes. Should peaceful means be inadequate and national authorities manifestly fail to protect their population, the international community is prepared to take timely and decisive action, including the use of enforcement measures authorised by the United Nations Security Council, to protect populations.
The Asia-Pacific Centre was set up in February 2008 and was the first regional centre of its kind, established for the specific purpose of advancing the responsibility to protect principle through conducting both research and policy dialogue. The centre is a partnership between the University of Queensland and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In 2009 the centre administered the Australian R2P Fund, which provided funds for 14 short-term 2 year projects. These projects sought to advance understandings of the principle and to build greater capacities for states to prevent atrocities and genocide. Such projects attempt to foster a shared understanding of the importance of R2P in an effort to establish creative policy that can be successfully implemented and subsequently improve the lives of people in the region.
Organisational associations and key events
The centre helped run ‘The Responsibility to Protect at 10: Progress, Challenges and Opportunities in the Asia Pacific’ conference in February 2015 in Cambodia. The conference attempted to foster active dialogue and engage with the current standing of the principle, 10 years after its formal adoption. The conference, with its diverse actors, attempted to make ‘words into deeds’ and ensure the principle is a ‘lived reality’. The conference stressed the importance of cooperation within various institutions, ranging from sub-regional to major international organisations like the United Nations, to implement the principle and foster a positive attitude towards its adoption. The extension of the centre’s funding in 2012 by the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, was set out in association with colleagues at Griffith Asia Institute, housed at Brisbane’s Griffith University. The centre works in partnership with the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. The center is also a member of the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect - based in New York, as well as the Consortium on the Non-Traditional Security in Asia based in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
Centre staff and recent publications
The centre is host to visiting and resident academics who regularly contribute to their respective academic field, cantered around the promotion of R2P values. The centre also offers internship programs to students to gain insight into research and policy fields that academics are undertaking study in. There are three central research areas undertaken at the centre: Regional Diplomacy and Capacity Building, Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities and Doctrine, and Concepts and Inter-Agency Coordination. The ‘’ recently came into publication, with issue two published in April 2016. Other recent publications by the centre include:
