Cecilia Jacob

Australian National University | ANU · Department of International Relations

This article introduces the conceptual and analytical framework for this special issue on hate speech and atrocity prevention in Asia. It defines hate speech and incitement, and explains the process and context through which hate speech and incitement operates as a risk factor for atrocities. It also provides an explanation of the international leg...

Hate speech and incitement have been instrumental in atrocity crimes that have occurred in India, even prior to its independence. These atrocities include targeted killings of minorities based on religious and ethnic identity, and demonstrate persistent features of systematic, orchestrated violence that is fuelled by a Hindu nationalist ideology. T...

This ELAC policy brief explains the relationship between human rights protection and atrocity prevention, demonstrating that the promotion and protection of human rights in foreign policy engagements is vital to safeguard populations from future atrocities. The brief also argues that states often subordinate human rights protection to other foreign...

This short article introduces the Special Issue on Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect. The purpose of this special issue is to prompt a conversation across historical and contemporary approaches, with a global perspective, to the question of intervention. It considers how the past informs the present and reflects on multiple 'futures' o...

Examines the implications of civilian resistance movements for the Responsibility to Protect doctrine, and questions whether or not the international community should support these movements as part of its efforts to prevent atrocities and protect civilian populations in situations of atrocity. It provides recommendations as to what kind of support...

This article examines Australia’s response to the Rohingya crisis in the areas of international, regional, and bilateral diplomacy, humanitarian assistance, and defence cooperation. It asks why Australia did not take a more proactive role in confronting atrocities committed by the Myanmar government, and identifies lessons learnt and recommendation...

Over the past three decades, there has been a notable expansion in the number and remit of global norms of human protection, informing the rationale and reform of international law and institutions in significant ways. Yet, the inconsistent and selective implementation of these norms undermines their legitimacy and strength. Drawing on interviews w...

The escalation of violence by Myanmar’s military forces against ethnic Rohingya populations in Rakhine State in 2017 served as a test case for Australia’s commitment to R2P, and its capacity to protect populations from widespread and systematic atrocities in its own regional neighbourhood. Australia’s response to the crisis in Myanmar was mixed; it...

This short article introduces the forum on the Uighur population in China and R2P. It provides context to demonstrate why it is important to analyse the current situation in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China through an R2P lens and states the objectives of the forum. It then provides a brief summary of the contributions in the forum that t...

The escalation of violence by Myanmar’s military forces against ethnic Rohingya populations in Rakhine State in 2017 served as a test case for Australia’s commitment to R2P, and its capacity to protect populations from widespread and systematic atrocities in its own regional neighbourhood. Australia’s response to the crisis in Myanmar was mixed; it...

This article documents how the formation of a Scholarly Circle led to the development of the articles published in this issue. We outline how our Scholarly Circle developed across three stages over a period of seven years. By doing so, we hope to encourage others to consider the Scholarly Circle as a potential model to guide small communities of sc...

This short article introduces the GR2P Forum reflecting on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine 15 years after it was institutionalised at the international level through the World Summit Outcome Document. It contextualises the relevance of critical reflections on the R2P at its 15th anniversary and then lays out the aims and objectives of...

This article assesses progress on the most recent series of UN reforms that aim to enhance the organisation's capacity to prevent violent conflict. These reforms target crucial inefficiencies within the UN that have hampered effective preventive and protection practices in situations of violent conflict and atrocities. The article argues that state...

With the rapid development of international law, norms and institutional reform in the area of human protection over the past three decades, this article assesses the current trends at the UN to identify whether there is an international backlash currently occurring. It traces the development, implementation and constestation of international human...

This article considers avenues for fruitful engagement between international relations (IR) and public theology to ask what an ethical Christian response to global conflict should entail. The process of mediating principles of biblical justice into a contemporary international context requires interpretation in a reality of territorial bounded stat...

This year, a new editorial team has stepped in to take the reins of Global Responsibility to Protect (GR2P). In light of the tremendous contributions this journal has made in pioneering and shaping a generation of scholarship on R2P, we recognise that continuing this legacy is both an exciting and challenging prospect. We are indebted to the outgoi...

This chapter introduces the field of atrocity prevention as a way to ground the R2P implementation agenda in existing research and policy frameworks. To date, global efforts have focused on the institutionalization of R2P across the UN system; this chapter describes developments in that institutionalization. It shows how the institutional positioni...

This book examines core thematic approaches to the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and analyzes case studies regarding the implementation of this important global norm. The volume analyzes this process at international, regional and local levels, and identifies an urgent need to progress from conceptual debates towards implementation in practice,...

Introduction: The challenges of implementing the R2P norm

This essay explains the findings of the Independent Inquiry into the UN's response to the Rohingya crisis of 2017 in the context of current efforts to institutionalise prevention at the UN.

Prevention has taken centre-stage in present discussions around both United Nations reform and the r2p implementation agenda. contemporary humanitarian crises from Myanmar to Yemen reinforce the horrendous atrocities that children face during periods of armed conflict and mass political upheaval to which the prevention agenda is geared. This articl...

This article contributes to the burgeoning norms literature in international relations that conceptualizes the norm life cycle as a nonlinear dynamic process that is open to contestation and change of “meanings in use.” There are limitations to this second generation of norms theory, however, most crucially in the identification of agency and proce...

Prevention has taken centre-stage in present discussions around both United Nations reform and the r2p implementation agenda. Contemporary humanitarian crises from Myanmar to Yemen reinforce the horrendous atrocities that children face during periods of armed conflict and mass political upheaval to which the prevention agenda is geared. This articl...

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on disaster management (AHA Centre), held a policy discussion on the World Humanitarian Summit (WHS) – Implications for the Asia-Pacific in Jakarta on Monday 14 November 2016. The policy discussion brought together some 40 experts,...

In recent years the UN Secretary-General has promoted mass atrocity prevention as the priority agenda for the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) at the UN, redirecting debates on R2P away from military interventionism towards improved state capacity to prevent atrocity crimes and protect populations. This focus has been illustrated in the UNSG's annua...

It is now ten years since the 2005 United Nations World Summit where states unanimously endorsed the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine. In particular, many states are supportive of Pillars One and Two, while controversy still surrounds the application of Pillar Three in some circumstances. In this policy brief, Cecilia Jacob and Stephen Mc...

This article responds to the 2013 un Secretary General’s (unsg) annual report on the Responsibility to Protect (r2p), titled ‘State Responsibility and Prevention’. The orientation of r2p as a tool for addressing risk factors for atrocity crimes in domestic contexts indicates a conceptual deepening and widening of r2p to provide states with an atroc...

Sociological studies in childhood have successfully carved out a research agenda that establishes children as worthy research subjects in their own right. This insight has impacted on international relations (IR) very late compared to similar developments throughout the social sciences given the perceived marginality of children to ‘central’ IR dis...

Inspired by the practice turn in the field of international relations, this article contributes to the growing interest in the sociological and potentially transformative nature of the concept of human security, with a specific emphasis on the protection of civilians affected by armed conflict. Drawing on fieldwork conducted in Cambodia and Myanmar...

Millions of children around the world are affected by conflict, and the enduring aftermath of war in post-conflict societies. This book reflects on the implications of children’s insecurity for governments and the international humanitarian community by drawing on original field research in post-conflict Cambodia and in Burma’s eastern conflict zon...