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Further Reading

Inspiration for Hosting the Symposium

Thematic Guide for the Symposium

Humanitarian Intervention

Hervé Ludovic de Lys, (Head of Office, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, West Africa) giving presentation on Mobility, Climate Change and Human Protection

Hervé Ludovic de Lys, (Head of Office, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, West Africa) giving presentation on Mobility, Climate Change and Human Protection

Karen Koning AbuZayd (Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) giving luncheon plenary address

Karen Koning AbuZayd (Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) giving luncheon plenary address

Students during the opening address

Students during the opening address

John Roth (Professor emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College) continuing discussion over lunch

John Roth (Professor emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College) continuing discussion over lunch

Catherine Dumait-Harper (Advisory Board for Action Contre la Faim) presenting "Raison d’état and Intervention"

Catherine Dumait-Harper (Advisory Board for Action Contre la Faim) presenting "Raison d’état and Intervention"

Symposium organizer, Professor Brett O'Bannon (DePauw) presenting paper on the limits of international law

Symposium organizer, Professor Brett O'Bannon (DePauw) presenting paper on the limits of international law

Imperfect Duties? Humanitarian Intervention in Africa and the Responsibility to Protect in the Post-Iraq Era
DePauw University
March 5-7, 2009

INVITATION

The West Africa Regional Bureau of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics invite you to attend our upcoming symposium entitled Imperfect Duties? Humanitarian Intervention in Africa and the Responsibility to Protect in a Post-Iraq Era.

Our interest is inspired in part by the impact of the humanitarian justification for the Iraq War on the discourse and practice of humanitarian intervention. The regular recurrence of complex humanitarian emergencies, especially in Africa, raises difficult questions about the efficacy of emerging interventionist norms. The use or abuse of humanitarian principles by state leaders and even some nongovernmental organizations for non-humanitarian purposes only reinforces arguments about the possible threats to international stability and to the rights of sovereign states posed by the expanding human rights regime. Critics point to the particular, perhaps unique, vulnerability of weaker states in the global south, given that the sites of intervention will almost certainly never be among the advanced industrialized states. The enormous scale of suffering and loss of life caused by these persistent disasters (e.g., Darfur, Somalia, Congo, Uganda, etc.) however, and the particularly African contribution to the Failed States phenomenon demand our continued commitment to seek an untangling of this Gordian knot.

SYMPOSIUM PARTICIPANTS

  • Karen Koning AbuZayd, Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East
  • Marion Arnaud, Project Officer for the Responsibility to Protect-Engaging Civil Society Project, Institute for Global Policy
  • Severine Autesserre, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Barnard College, Columbia University
  • Assefaw Bariagaber, Professor and Chair, The Whitehead School of Diplomacy & International Relations, Seton Hall University
  • Carol Berger, PhD Candidate in Anthropology at Oxford University (on The Role of Ethnography in Understanding Conflict and Ethnicised Violence in Sudan)
  • David Chandler, Professor of International Relations, Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Westminster (UK), founding editor of the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding
  • Catherine Dumait-Harper, Advisory Board for Action Contre la Faim (Action Against Hunger), former UN Representative of Médecins Sans Frontièrs
  • The Honorable Gareth Evans, President and CEO, International Crisis Group, former Australian Foreign Minister and co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty
  • Jerry Fowler, Executive Director, Save Darfur Foundation, founding director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Committee on Conscience
  • Hervé Ludovic de Lys, Head of Office, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, West Africa. Dakar, Senegal
  • Anne Orford, Professor and Director of the Institute for International Law and the Humanities at the Melbourne Law School, Melbourne University, Australia
  • John Roth, Professor emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College, Frederick Visiting Professor of Ethics, DePauw University, 2007-2008.
  • Jeremy Sarkin, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law, Hofstra University School of Law, UN Special Rapporteur, United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, UN Human Rights Council
  • Amos Sawyer, President of the Interim Government of National Unity in Liberia from 1990-1994, Associate Director and Research Scholar, Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University

SCHEDULE

Thursday, March 5, 2009

8:00 p.m.

Opening Address by the Honorable Gareth Evans
President and CEO, International Crisis Group, former Australian Foreign Minister and co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty 

“The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and For All” 

Introduction: Brian CASEY, DePauw University President

Location: Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, Auditorium

Friday, March 6, 2009

8:00 a.m.

Registration - Continental Breakfast
Location: Janet Prindle Ethics Institute, Auditorium lobby

8:30 a.m. - 9:45 a.m.

Panel I. Case Studies in Conflict Analysis: Understanding Intervention in Africa
Séverine AUTESSERE, “R2P in the Congo: the failure of prevention.”
Assefaw BARIAGABER, “Endemic Conflicts and Intervention in the Horn of Africa: Has Anything Changed since the End of the Cold War?”
Amos SAWYER, “The Governance – Conflict Connection in West Africa”

Panel Discussant: Rebecca UPTON, Associate Professor of Sociology and Anthropology, Director of Conflict Studies, DePauw University

Location: Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, Auditorium 

Coffee and refreshment break

10:00 a.m. - 11:15 a.m.

Follow-up Roundtable. African Conflicts and the “New” Interventionism

Roundtable Moderator: Brett O’BANNON, Associate Professor of Political Science, DePauw University

11:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Luncheon Plenary Address: Karen Koning AbuZayd
Commissioner-General, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East 

“Toward the Secretary General’s ‘Responsible Sovereignty’: Operational Experience in the Occupied Palestinian Territory” 

Introduction: Robert BOTTOMS, DePauw University President Emeritus, Director of the Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics 

Location: The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, Great Room

1:00 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.

Panel II. Global Civil Society and the Protection of Human Rights 
Marion ARNAUD, “The Responsibility to Protect – Engaging Civil Society”
Catherine DUMAIT-HARPER, “Raison d’état and Intervention: Implications for International Humanitarian Law”
Jerry FOWLER, “From ICISS to World Summit 2005: ‘Responsibility’ (and Darfur) Lost in Translation” 

Panel Discussant: Sharon CRARY, Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, DePauw University 

Location: Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, Auditorium

2:30 p.m. - 3:45 p.m.

Follow-up Roundtable. Friends of R2P?

Roundtable Moderator: John ROTH, Edward J. Sexton Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Claremont McKenna College

Coffee and refreshment break

4:00 p.m. - 5:15 p.m.

Panel III. International Society, Sovereignty and the Responsibility to Protect
David CHANDLER, “The Gap between Policy and Practice: Unraveling the Paradox of R2P” 
Brett O’BANNON, “Bringing the African State in: The Structural Foundations of a Human Protection Norm”
Jeremy SARKIN, “The Crisis in Zimbabwe: Implications of R2P for the Southern African Development Community”

Panel Discussant: Gordan VURUSIC, Instructor of Political Science, DePauw University 

Location: Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, Auditorium

Coffee and refreshment break

5:30 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.

Follow-up Roundtable. Friends of R2P?

Roundtable Moderator: B. Welling HALL, Professor of Politics and International Studies and Plowshares Professor of Peace Studies, Earlham College

 

Saturday, March 7, 2009

9:00 a.m.

Registration - Continental Breakfast
Location: Janet Prindle Ethics Institute, Auditorium lobby

9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.

Panel IV. Reaching the Tipping Point? Whither Prevention and Rebuilding in the R2P Norm
Carol BERGER, “R2P in the Congo: the failure of prevention.” 
Hervé LUDOVIC DE LYS, “Mobility, Climate Change and Human Protection: The Case of the Sahel” 
John ROTH, “Crying Out for Action: Do the Dead Say Anything about the Responsibility to Protect?” 

Panel Discussant: Rich CAMERON, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, DePauw University 

Location: Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, Auditorium 

Coffee and Refreshment Break

11:00 a.m. - 12:15 a.m.

Follow-up Roundtable. Advancing the Agenda, but on What is There an Emerging Global Consensus?

Roundtable Moderator: Jeremy ANDERSON, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, DePauw University

12:30 p.m.

Luncheon with Closing Plenary by Anne Orford
Professor and Director of the Institute for International Law and the Humanities at the Melbourne Law School, Melbourne University, Australia 

“The Responsibility to Protect and the Limits of International Authority” Introduction: Brett O’BANNON, Associate Professor of Political Science, DePauw University 

Location: The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics, Great Room