327 Cesáreo Gutiérrez Espada The responsibility to protect and the right of veto in the Security Council: some recent examples but rather to contextualise the proposal by France regarding the UN Security Council permanent members’ right of veto. Three issues emerge here: the definition of the RtoP, the legal possibilities of this form and why it has not been implemented in Syria. The concept of the RtoP was formulated for the first time in 2001 and accepted, at least in substance, by the Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Member States of the United Nations, called the Millennium Summit (September 2005). It was implemented for the first time in the civil war in Libya (between March and October 2011). A) It was the result of an initiative launched by the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS), a group of experts brought together on the initiative of the government of Canada and some foundations, to try to respond to the challenge raised by the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Koffi Annan. The idea of the RtoP was proposed. How can the international community, questioned the Secretary-General – moved by the genocides committed in Srebrenica and Rwanda (1995 and 1994)9, ensure that these types of horrors never happen again? The ICISS understood that the concept of the RtoP was being consolidated in international law, whereby: • In the case of mass crimes (genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, crimes against humanity). –If the state in which the crime is being perpetrated cannot, does not want to, or is incapable of preventing it, the international community has a duty to protect these people. – And to adopt all measures necessary, starting with the least aggressive: preven tative measures (diplomatic, political, legal…); coercive (non-armed); and, if needed, and fulfilling the established requirements, military measures (armed intervention for the cause of humanity) following the required order and protection. The RtoP is based on three elements: the duty to prevent, the duty to react and the intervention & the Responsability to Project. Who should intervene?, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012; BERMEJO GARCÍA, R.: “La responsabilidad de proteger y el Derecho internacional: ¿mito o realidad en la práctica internacional?”, in DÍAZ BARRADO, C.M., FERNÁNDEZ LIESA, C.R. Y RODRÍGUEZ-VILLASANTE PRIETO, J.L. (Dirs): Derecho Internacional Humanitario y Derechos Humanos. Reflexiones sobre el conflicto Colombiano, Civitas-Thomson Reuters, Cizur Menor (Navarra), 2013, pp. 179-214. 9 Report presented by the Secretary General in conformity with General Assembly Resolution 53/35. The fall of Srebrenica (A/54/549), 15 November 1999.
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