This book examines the hard legal core, if any, of the "Responsibility
to Protect (R2P)" concept with regard to the commitment to take
collective action through the UN Security Council. It addresses the
question of whether public international law establishes a duty on the
part of the individual Security Council members to collectively take the
necessary action to prevent atrocities (genocide, crimes against
humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing). To this end, it offers an
interpretation of provisions in multilateral conventions, such as the
undertaking to prevent genocide in Article 1 of the Genocide Convention
and the undertaking to ensure respect for the Geneva Conventions in
common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, analyses the UN Charter
framework for Security Council action, and explores whether the
recognition of the international responsibility to protect has prompted
the emergence of a new norm for general international law.