This paper explores the legal bases that international human rights law (IHRL) can bring to the third pillar of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), that is, the responsibility of the international community to help protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, both at the legal and institutional levels. It discusses the existence of obligations of the international community under IHRL that can be linked to R2P. It analyzes the norms of the universal system of protection of human rights, the erga omnes nature of its obligations and the duties derived from the peremptory character of some human rights norms; finally, it comments on the institutional potential of the bodies of the universal system in the adoption of measures under the third pillar.
Keywords:
extraterritorial human rights obligations, Responsibility to Protect, erga omnes obligations, jus cogens norms, universal human rights system
Author Biography
Luciano Pezzano, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
Luciano Pezzano es abogado de la Universidad de Ciencias Empresariales y Sociales San Francisco (UCES San Francisco), Argentina. Magíster en Relaciones Internacionales del Centro de Estudios Avanzados de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (CEA-UNC), Argentina. Doctor en Derecho y Ciencias Sociales de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Becario postdoctoral CIJS-UNC/Conicet (2019- 2020). Profesor titular de Derechos Humanos desde la Perspectiva Internacional, UCES San Francisco. Profesor asociado de Derecho Internacional Público y de la Integración, UCES San Francisco. Profesor ayudante «A» de Derecho Internacional Público de la Facultad de Derecho UNC. Docente en otros cursos de grado y de posgrado.
Pezzano, L. (2023). Responsibility to protect and human rights: A complex relationship with a lot of potential. Anuario De Derechos Humanos, 19(1), 91–124. https://doi.org/10.5354/0718-2279.2023.68306