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African Human Rights Law Journal

versión On-line ISSN 1996-2096
versión impresa ISSN 1609-073X

Afr. hum. rights law j. vol.12 no.2 Pretoria  2012

 

ARTICLES

 

South Africa, the African Union and the responsibility to protect: The case of Libya

 

 

Sandy AfricaI; Rentia PretoriusII

IAssociate Professor, Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, South Africa
IILecturer, Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria, South Africa

 

 


SUMMARY

International relations are regulated by a system of norms and laws that has evolved over a long period. The responsibility to protect is an evolving normative framework shared by a significant number of international actors, but it failed to create normative cohesion and unity of action during the Libyan crisis in 2011 due to issues of interpretation and application. The article examines the application of the responsibility to protect framework when violence broke out in Libya. Contradictory strategies by the United Nations and the African Union divided the international community and rekindled old divisions and mistrust, resulting in claims by some within the AU - South Africa particularly - that the African effort was being undermined. The international community must urgently strengthen the common understanding and institutional framework for the responsibility to protect.


 

 

“Full text available only in PDF format”

 

 

* PhD (Witwatersrand); sandy.africa@up.ac.za
** MA (Pretoria); rentia.pretorius@up.ac.za
1 UN Security Council S/RES/1973, adopted by the Security Council at its 6498th meeting on 17 March 2011.
2 UN Security Council (SC 10519) 'Security Council commits to "effective steps" to enhance relationship with African Union in conflict prevention, resolution, with unanimous adoption of 2033 (2012)' 12 January 2012 http://www.un.org (accessed 5 June 2012).
3 UN Security Council (SC 10519) (n 2 above).
4 E Mckaiser 'South Africa's response to the Libyan crisis: An analysis' http://www.politicsweb.co.za (accessed 1 November 2011).
5 J Brunée & S Toope 'International law and constructivism: Elements of an international theory of international law' (2000) 39 Columbia journal of Transnational Law 19 49-50.         [ Links ]
6 Brunée & Toope (n 5 above) 68 analyse the link between international law and constructivist theory and ask how law influences human behaviour. They provide an analysis of the conditions of internal rationality that distinguishes legal norms from social norms, ie compatibility of norms with one another, reasonable demands, predictability and transparency. The presence of these conditions is crucial for responsibility to protect to evolve into a binding legal norm (56).
7 M Finnemore & K Sikkink 'Taking stock: The constructivist research programme in international relations and comparative politics' (1998) 52 International Organisation 891.
8 JAC Salcedo 'Reflections on the existence of a hierarchy of norms in international law' (1997) 8 European journal of International Law 584.         [ Links ]
9 Salcedo (n 8 above) 585.
10 As above.
11 A Florini 'The evolution of international norms' (1996) 40 International Studies Quarterly 363.
12 Florini (n 11 above) 374.
13 T Murithi 'The African Union's evolving role in peace operations: The African Union mission in Burundi, the African Union mission in Sudan and the African Union mission in Somalia' (2008) 17 African Security Review 73.         [ Links ]
14 Brunée & Toope (n 5 above).
15 International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, the Responsibility to Protect (2001) http://www.iciss.ca/report-en.asp (accessed 13 August 2012); see also M Serrano 'The responsibility to protect and its critics: Explaining the consensus' (2011) 3 Global Responsibility to Protect 426.
16 RJ Hamilton 'The responsibility to protect: From document to doctrine - but what of implementation?' (2006) 19 Harvard Human Rights Law Journal 289-291.
17 MW Matthews 'Tracking the emergence of a new international norm: The responsibility to protect and the crisis in Darfur' (2008) 31 Boston College International and Comparative Law Review 142.         [ Links ]
18 UNGA World Summit Outcomes Document (2005) A/60/L.1.
19 Australian Red Cross 'The power of humanity' in Australian Red Cross International humanitarian law and the responsibility to protect: A handbook (2011) 11-12.
20 As above.
21 Florini (n 11 above) 378. See also Brunée & Toope (n 5 above).
22 Florini (n 11 above).
23 As above.
24 Finnemore & Sikkink (n 7 above) 895.
25 B Boutros-Ghali 'An agenda for peace. Preventive diplomacy, peacemaking and peacekeeping' Report of the Secretary-General pursuant to the statement adopted by the Summit Meeting of the Security Council on 31 January 1992.
26 K Annan We the peoples. The role of the United Nations in the 21st century. UN Millennium Report (2000) 7.
27 Matthews (n 17 above) 140.
28 See FM Deng 'Frontiers of sovereignty. A framework of protection, assistance, and development for the internally displaced' (1995) 8 Leiden Journal of International Law 250.         [ Links ] Deng was the UNSG's Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide from 2007 to 2012.
29 Deng (n 28 above) 271.
30 As above.
31 Art 1(1) & ch VII art 42 United Nations Charter.
32 African Union Constitutive Act, entered into force 26 May 2001.
33 Statement delivered by Ambassador Sangqu, Permanent representative of the Republic of South Africa, during the General Assembly debate on the Secretary-General's Report on implementing responsibility to protect (2009).
34 As above.
35 Art 4(h) African Union Constitutive Act.
36 Arts 4(a), 4(g), 4(e), 4(f), 4(i), 4(p) & 4(h) African Union Constitutive Act. See also M Dembinski & M Reinold 'Libya and the future of the responsibility to protect -African and European perspectives' PRIF Report 107 (2011) 8.
37 The common African position on the proposed reform of the United Nations: The 'Ezulwini consensus', adopted by the AU Executive Council on 8 March 2005 at the 7th extraordinary session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, http://www.responsibilitytoprotect.org/files/AU_Ezulwini%20Consensus.pdf (accessed 13 September 2012).
38 Florini (n 11 above) 367 373.
39 T Murithi 'The African Union's transition from non-intervention to non-indifference: An ad hoc approach to the responsibility to protect?' (2009) http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/ipg/ipg-2009-1/08_a_murithi_us.pdf (accessed 29 October 2012). See also the references of the African Union Commission Chairperson, Alpha Konare, to the principle of non-indifference in Africa in A Baffour 'African Union: From noninterference to non-indifference' (2007) 460 New African 10.
40 See AU press statement PSC/PR/COMM/CCLXII (23 February 2011) and Communique PSC/AHG/COMM.1 (CCLXV) (10 March 2011) and PSC/MIN/ COMM.2(CCLXXV) (26 April 2011).
41 Report of the Chairperson of the Commission on the activities of the AU high-level ad hoc committee on the situation in Libya AU PSCPR/2(CCLXXV) (26 April 2011).
42 Dembinski & Reinold (n 36 above) 10-11.
43 The rejection of the AU road map for peace in Libya followed the same path as AU efforts to end conflicts in Somalia, Madagascar and Cote d'lvoire. See M Tran 'Libyan rebels protest over African Union peace mission' The Guardian 11 April 2011 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011 (accessed 13 August 2012).
44 E Sidiropoulos 'Libya: A lost opportunity for the African Union' 31 August 2011 http://www.saiia.org.za/diplomatic-pouch/libya-a-lost-opportunity-for-the-african-union.html. (accessed 13 August 2012).
45 Communiqué: Meeting of the AU high-level ad hoc committee on Libya, Pretoria, 26 June 2011, http://www.thepresidency.gov.za/ (accessed 10 July 2012).
46 Dembinski & Reinold (n 36 above) 11-13.
47 D Kuwali 'The end of humanitarian intervention: Evaluation of the African Union's right of intervention' (2009) http://www.hks.harvard.edu/cchrp/pdf/ACJR_vol9 (accessed 13 August 2012).
48 Kuwali (n 47 above) 53.
49 Speech by Deputy-Minister Ebrahim Ebrahim on 'South Africa's position vis-a-vis recent UNSC resolutions on the Libyan crisis as a test of South Africa's leadership role on African solutions to African problems' 2 August 2011, http://www.info.gov.za/speech (accessed 13 August 2012).
50 See declaration by the ANC Youth League, 21 March 2011, objecting to South Africa voting in favour of UNSC 1973, http://www.ancyl.org.za/docs/pr/2011/pr0321.html (accessed 20 August 2012).
51 Concerned Africans 'Libya, Africa, and the new world order. An open letter to the peoples of Africa and the world 24 August 2011 http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2011/libya270811.html. (accessed 13 August 2012).
52 C Monyela 'South Africa welcomes and supports the UN Security Council's resolution on no fly zone in Libya' 18 March 2011 http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/2011/liby0318.html (accessed 13 August 2012).
53 As above.
54 Ebrahim (n 49 above).
55 'SA group slams NATO attacks on Libya' 24 August 2011 News 24 http://www.news24.com (accessed 10 August 2012).
56 A Stratton 'Obama, Cameron and Sarkozy: No let-up in Libya until Gadaffi departs' The Guardian 15 April 2011.
57 M Nkoana-Mashabane Speech by Minister of International Relations and Co-operation on South Africa's Foreign Policy 2 September 2011 23 http://www.dfa.gov.za (accessed 13 August 2012).
58 J Zuma Speech 27 August 2011 http://www.info.gov.za/speech (accessed 25 July 2012).
59 See J Mahlahla 'AU: Time to wake up is now' 18 May 2012 http://www.zbc.co.zw/news (accessed 6 June 2012).
60 Sidiropoulus (n 44 above).
61 L Nathan 'Remarks at UP seminar on Libya 15 September 2011' (2011) 33 Strategic Review for Southern Africa 135.         [ Links ]
62 Florini (n 11 above).
63 Finnemore & Sikkink (n 7 above).
64 UN Security Council (n 2 above).
65 A Mezyaev 'Africa and the UN: An attempt to shatter "NWO" chains' 23 January 2012.
66 A Bellamy & T Dunne 'Syria: R2P on trial' The Interpreter 5 June 2012 (accessed 13 August 2012).
67 D Reiff 'R2P, RIP' New York Times 7 November 2011 http://www.nytimes.com (accessed 13 August 2012).
68 C Keeler 'The end of the responsibility to protect?' Foreign Policy journal 12 October 2011 http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com (accessed 18 July 2012).
69 R Gladstone 'Resigning as envoy to Syria, Annan casts wide blame' New York Times 2 August 2012 http://www.nytimes.com (accessed 13 August 2012).
70 R Dallaire Shake hands with the devil. The failure of humanity in Rwanda (2003) 521.
71 UN Security Council (n 2 above).
72 As above.

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