Prevention of Mass Atrocities through the Responsibility to Protect: A Comparison of the Cases of Kenya and Guinea

Abstract

Although the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) populations from mass atrocity crimes was unanimously adopted under Paragraphs 138 and 139 of the 2005 World Summit Outcome Document, in inconsistencies in implementation shows that the rhetoric has not materialized into practice yet. While the use of force and the question of sovereignty were still at the core of the debates surrounding R2P, mass atrocity prevention was put forward as the novelty of the norm by its proponents. In this respect, the track record of R2P implies that a successful mass atrocity prevention strategy is necessary in order to achieve successful prevention. Taking this into consideration, this thesis aims to determine the requirements for successful mass atrocity prevention. Accordingly, it suggests a sustainable prevention framework by examining the evolution of mass atrocity prevention and related strategies. To this end, it utilizes the theory of “Localization” to reveal alternative actors outside the United Nations Security Council—such as the African Union and Economic Community of West African States—that can lead the prevention strategy. In this regard, the cases of Kenya and Guinea—which are widely recognized as successful cases of mass atrocity prevention in the R2P literature—are studied in order to analyze the prevention strategies as well as the roles played by the actors in practice. Accordingly, the comparative analysis of the two cases is used to determine the requirements for a successful prevention strategy. In the light of this, this thesis argues that successful prevention of mass atrocities requires a sustainable strategy—in line with the direct and structural prevention tools—to be implemented under the leadership of the responsible regional and sub-regional organizations.