GPPi contributes to workshop on Responsibility While Protecting

On 23 August 2012 in Rio de Janeiro, GPPi Associate Director Thorsten Benner contributed to a workshop on the ​“Responsibility While Protecting: What is Next?” The workshop was organized by Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV) in cooperation with the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect and the Stanley Foundation. The off-the-record workshop sought to advance understanding about Responsibility While Protecting (RwP), an initiative introduced by Brazil last fall, and the role it may play in strengthening the Responsibility to Protect (R2P).

Benner contributed to the panel called ​“The Reception of RwP in Major Capitals.” His co-panelists were Hardeep Puri, the Indian ambassador to the United Nations, and Thomas Wright of the Brookings Institution. The panel was chaired by Oliver Stuenkel, an assistant professor at FGV and also a non-resident fellow at GPPi. Other participants included Gareth Evans (University of Melbourne), Jennifer Welsh (Oxford University) and Doc Mashabane (South African Mission to the UN). The keynote address was provided by the Foreign Minister of Brazil, Antonio Patriota.

The event was organized by FGV’s Matias Spektor, who – together with Oliver Stuenkel – is a partner in the new GPPi project The Evolution of the Responsibility to Protect.

In his remarks, Benner argued that Brazil’s RwP initiative was at first met with skepticism on the part of Western powers – for two reasons. The immediate reason was Brazil´s voting behavior last fall in the Security Council when it did not support a European resolution on Syria. The broader reason was that Western countries are not used to norm entrepreneurs from outside the West. Now, with many in the West realizing that after the stalemate on Syria a new compromise on R2P is necessary, the Brazilian initiative can be an important driver for a renewed consensus on some of the critical issues regarding R2P.