Mr. Speaker, the 10th anniversary of the Responsibility to Protect Principle, which authorizes international action “to protect a state's population from genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity” if that state is unable or unwilling to protect its own citizens--or worse, is the author of its criminality, as in the recent case of Libya--is not only a landmark normative principle but has been characterized as the most significant development in the defence of human rights since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
Yet, given that there have been millions of preventable deaths over the past 10 years, what ultimately matters is translating this principle into practice, organized around the four pillars of the responsibility to prevent to begin with, the responsibility to respond and protect, the responsibility to bring war criminals to justice, and the responsibility to rebuild.
In a word, this principle is about saving lives, about protecting international peace and security, and about protecting human security. We ignore it at our peril.