A tale of two norms

In late 2008, one of the authors of R2P accosted me in the quadrangle of Magdalen College, Oxford, during an alumni dinner. He was clearly displeased that some were suggesting that R2P was not a norm of international law but merely a “principle” or an “emerging norm”. He was not at all happy that the genuinely impressive normative work done by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) in general and himself and the other lead drafters might not yet have the status of a norm even after its unanimous adoption by the World Summit in 2005. I doubt that he was also reacting to the rising star of Protection of Civilians (POC) which was also being promoted by the Australian government, which many countries feel more comfortable in advocating and which the UN Security Council has used much more.

Related Subject(s): Human Rights and Refugees