Ministerial Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect: Building Back Better

This year, 2020, the international community celebrates the 75th anniversary of the United Nations as well as the 15th anniversary of the adoption of the principle of the Responsibility to Protect at the 2005 World Summit. While these coinciding anniversaries deserve to be widely celebrated, they also come at a turbulent and unprecedented time. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced the need for solutions that embrace multilateralism, defend global norms and standards, and uphold international law.

On the sidelines of the opening of the 75th UN General Assembly, the Global Centre, together with the governments of Costa Rica, Denmark and Qatar, hosted a Ministerial side-event. The virtual event offered Member States the unique opportunity to reaffirm the global commitment to protect vulnerable populations, to take stock of past efforts and best practices with regard to the prevention of atrocities, and to devise effective strategies for ‘Building Back Better’ after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The meeting opened with a video message on the 15th anniversary of R2P delivered by UN Secretary-General António Guterres.