News & Events

Alan Rock brings powerful message to Elmwood School

The idea seemed to immediately resonate with Elmwood students. It was an idea with a unique Canadian connection that spoke to our moral obligation to protect vulnerable populations. Mr. Alan Rock, former ambassador to the U.N and now President of the University of Ottawa spoke to our Senior School with passion about the R2P protocol, the Responsibility to Protect, on Friday, October 2nd.

The Responsibility to Protect was a Canadian initiative adopted by the UN. General Assembly in 2005. Mr. Rock spoke of the failure of sovereign states to protect their populations again and again in places like in Darfur and Rwanda. With the acceptance of R2P in the General Assembly of the U.N., the international community pledged to protect the peoples within its borders. Where sovereign states fail, it is now the obligation of all states to take collective actions such as being vigilant for early warning indicators and helping to build capacity for preventive measures to assist their global neighbours in living up to their responsibility to stop ethic cleansing and mass atrocities. Mr. Rock pointed to the recent developments in Kenya as an example of a successful preventative intervention by the global community. Only in the most exceptional circumstances does the Right to Protect protocol advocate coercive intervention to shield those in harms way.

Through insightful questioning, Elmwood students explored the complex aspects of R2P such as the use of the Security Council and the International Court as the practical mechanisms for enforcement of the world's commitment to the globe's most at risk populations. As Mr. Rock pointed out, the United Nations may be an imperfect mechanism, but hopefully it can be reformed to prevent the kind of paralysis that has characterized our response to mass atrocities in the past.

For more information about the R2P protocol, please visit www.responsibilitytoprotect.org