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Thesis advisor: David M. Rasmussen / In this dissertation I argue for an approach that conceives human rights as both moral and legal rights. The merit of such an approach is its capacity to understand human rights more in terms of the kind of world free and reasonable beings would like to live in rather than simply in terms of what each individual is legally entitled to. While I acknowledge that every human being has the moral entitlement to be granted living conditions that are conducive to a dignified life, I maintain, at the same time, that the moral and legal aspects of human rights are complementary and should be given equal weight. The legal aspect compensates for the limitations of moral human rights the observance of which depends on the conscience of the individual, and the moral aspect tempers the mechanical and inhumane application of the law. Unlike the traditional or orthodox approach, which conceives human rights as rights that individuals have by virtue of their humanity, and the political or practical approach, which understands human rights as legal rights that are meant to limit the sovereignty of the state, the moral-legal approach reconciles law and morality in human rights discourse and underlines the importance of a legal framework that compensates for the deficiencies in the implementation of moral human rights. It not only challenges the exclusively negative approach to fundamental liberties but also emphasizes the necessity of an enforcement mechanism that helps those who are not morally motivated to refrain from violating the rights of others. Without the legal mechanism of enforcement, the understanding of human rights would be reduced to simply framing moral claims against injustices. Many traditional human rights theorists failed to reconcile the moral and legal aspects of human rights. That is why Jürgen Habermas, whose approach to human rights provides the guiding intuition of this dissertation, has been criticized for approaching human rights from a legal point of view, especially in Between Facts and Norms. Most of Habermas’s critics overlooked his goal in the project of reconstructing law. Habermas addresses the question of the legitimacy of modern law by finding good arguments for a law to be recognized as right and just. For him, modern law has two sources of legitimacy: human rights and popular sovereignty. He affirms their mutual presupposition in a system of rights within a constitutional democracy. In order to grasp Habermas’s moral considerations in his account of human rights, one has to go beyond Between Facts and Norms. That is why the relationship Habermas establishes between law and morality should constitute the starting point in understanding the moral dimension of human rights in his account of human rights. That relationship is clarified in the discussion on the interdependence between human rights and human dignity. Human dignity provides the ground from which human rights are interpreted and justified. Human dignity is the standpoint from which individuals can claim rights from one another on the basis of mutual respect. Because of human dignity, members of a political community can live as free and equal citizens. In order to achieve such a goal, there must be structures that facilitate social integration. Thus, the existence of a strong civil society that can stimulate discussion in the public sphere and promote a vigilant citizenry and respect for human rights becomes very important. The protection of human rights becomes a common and shared responsibility. Such a responsibility goes beyond the boundaries of nation-states and requires the establishment of a cosmopolitan human rights regime based on the conviction that all human beings are members of a community of fate and that they share common values which transcend the limits of their individual states. In a cosmopolitan human rights regime, people are protected as persons and not as citizens of a particular state. The realization of such a regime requires solidarity and the politics of compassion. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Philosophy.

Thesis advisor: Donald Hafner / Thesis advisor: Timothy Crawford / This Scholar of the College senior honors thesis moves beyond moral pronouncements and the vague excuse of international "lack of will" for genocide intervention to introduce an inductive typology identifying practical, specific factors responsible for the world's repeated unwillingness to intervene during genocide under the obligations of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Drawing on original, classified documents contained in the UN Office at Geneva, the thesis proposes methods of mitigating the influence of these factors and evaluates the degree to which the Responsibility to Protect, a new humanitarian intervention norm, attenuates or exacerbates the causes of non-intervention. The project was awarded the John McCarthy S.J. Award for the most distinguished Scholar of the College senior thesis in the Social Sciences at Boston College. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science.

The thesis focuses on, and tries to evaluate, the role that the African Union (AU) plays in protecting the peace and security on the African continent. The thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to the topic by both utilizing international relations and international law theories. The two disciplines are combined in an attempt to understand the evolution of the AU’s commitment to the pragmatist doctrine: responsibility to protect (R2P). The AU charter is considered to be the first international law document to cover R2P as it allows the AU to interfere in the internal affairs of its member states. The R2P doctrine was evolved around the notion of a need to arrive at a consensus in regard to the right to intervene in the face of humanitarian emergencies. A part of the post-Cold War shift in UN behaviour has been to support local solutions to local problems. Hereby the UN acts in collaboration with regional organizations, such as the AU, to achieve the shared aspirations to maintain international peace and security without getting directly involved on the ground. The R2P takes a more holistic and long-term approach to interventions by including an awareness of the need to address the root causes of the crisis in order to prevent future resurrections of conflicts. The doctrine also acknowledges the responsibility of the international community and the intervening parties to actively participate in the rebuilding of the post-conflict state. This requires sustained and well planned support to ensure the development of a stable society.While the AU is committed to implementing R2P, many of the AU’s members are struggling, both ideologically and practically, to uphold the foundations on which legitimate intervention rests, such as the protection of human rights and good governance. The fact that many members are also among the poorest countries in the world adds to the challenges facing the AU. A lack of human and material resources leads to a situation where few countries are willing, or able, to support a long-term commitment to humanitarian interventions. Bad planning and unclear mandates also limit the effectiveness of the interventions. This leaves the AU strongly dependent on regional powerbrokers such as Nigeria and South Africa, which in itself creates new problems in regard to the motivations behind interventions. The current AU charter does not provide sufficient checks and balances to ensure that national interests are not furthered through humanitarian interventions. The lack of resources within the AU also generates worries over what pressure foreign nations and other international actors apply through donor funding. It is impossible for the principle of “local solutions for local problems? to gain ground while this donor conditionality exists.The future of the AU peace and security regime is not established since it still is a work in progress. The direction that these developments will take depends on a wide verity of factors, many of which are beyond the immediate control of the AU.

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This report examines the marketing activities of the nonprofit organization, Protect Lake Travis Association based in Austin, Texas, with a mission to protect Lake Travis and its watershed from any events and conditions that could negatively affect the natural beauty and quality of the area. In the summer of 2011, Protect Lake Travis Association was in need of foundational marketing materials and recommendations of marketing activities that they can implement. This report incorporates qualitative survey research, execution of creative work that includes branding and an organizational brochure, and a focus on marketing recommendations for Protect Lake Travis Association. / text

For nearly half a decade discussion of the responsibility to protect (R2P) and international criminal justice proceeded along separate lines. However, in recent years an emerging perception that international criminal law may contribute to putting an end to a continuing atrocity crimes has lead to its use as an R2P reactive tool. This paper examines the relationship between R2P and the activity of International Criminal Court (the ICC), and the implications of their recent rapprochement. Firstly, the paper aims to bring a much-needed focus on the implications of their current interaction in ongoing conflict situations. Secondly it examines whether the convergence of R2P and the ICC represents a paradigmatic shift toward humanity’s law and a possible utopian tyranny or reinforces the traditional statist system as the fundamental framework for conflict mediation opening the door to a possible “cynic tyranny”. Thirdly, it considers how ICC and R2P activities should be coordinated.

For nearly half a decade discussion of the responsibility to protect (R2P) and international criminal justice proceeded along separate lines. However, in recent years an emerging perception that international criminal law may contribute to putting an end to a continuing atrocity crimes has lead to its use as an R2P reactive tool. This paper examines the relationship between R2P and the activity of International Criminal Court (the ICC), and the implications of their recent rapprochement. Firstly, the paper aims to bring a much-needed focus on the implications of their current interaction in ongoing conflict situations. Secondly it examines whether the convergence of R2P and the ICC represents a paradigmatic shift toward humanity’s law and a possible utopian tyranny or reinforces the traditional statist system as the fundamental framework for conflict mediation opening the door to a possible “cynic tyranny”. Thirdly, it considers how ICC and R2P activities should be coordinated.

The debate regarding the relationship between state sovereignty and the protection of the hu-man rights was at its peak during the 1990’s. Never again the world wanted to witness the atrocities committed in Rwanda, but at the same time some states argued in favor of a strict interpretation of the principle of state sovereignty and non-intervention. In 2001, ICISS was created – a commission with the aim to find consensus in the question of how the world should respond to mass atrocities committed by a state against their own people. Their work resulted in a report which presented a new view to the state sovereignty: “the responsibility to protect” (R2P). The purpose of this essay is to study the development and appliance of the concept since 2001. According to ICISS, every state has a responsibility to protect its citizens against mass atrocities. If the state is unwilling, or incapable to live up to this responsibility, the international community has the secondary responsibility to protect the people in that state. At the time of ICISS:s report, R2P had a limited legal value and could only be consid-ered as a soft law-principle consisting of arguments de lege ferenda. During the World Sum-mit in 2005, the principle evolved into an international normative concept consisting of the state’s opinio iuris, as R2P was implemented in two paragraphs in the Outcome Document. The definition of the concept now became narrower than the original principle, since R2P only applied to genocide, crimes against humanity, ethnic cleansing and war crimes. The ap-pliance of R2P has been fairly inconsequent in practice. Although usus has not been reached in the area, R2P is now an established concept, and the debate has led from if the international community should act, to how it should act. In the future, regional organizations will probably play an extended role in the work for international peace. Interventions without the Security Council’s mandate is not a desirable outcome, but nevertheless a possibility if the Council doesn’t become more effective when facing mass atrocities and humanitarian disasters.

This thesis deals with the future of the concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) and focuses on prospects of the concept after the conflicts in Libya and Syria. Concept of R2P was developed in 2001 as a reaction to the genocide in Rwanda and Srebrenica and attempts to bring an answer to the question, how to react in the situation when a sovereign state fails to protect its population against crimes under international law. In this thesis I examine the application of the concept in Libya and reasons why it was not applied to a similar situation in Syria. I also deal with the subsequent debate which was held on the international stage after experience with these conflicts and I analyse proposals, which were brought into this debate focusing on how to move the concept forward or modify it. I therefore examine the Brazilian concept of the Responsibility while Protecting (RwP), the question of adoption of guidelines for the intervention according to the R2P, the topic of monitoring and accountability of the intervening state, the Responsibility not to veto and the issue of limiting the use of veto in UN Security Council, the possibility of involvement of UN General Assembly in the R2P, the question of prevention and the topic of unilateral non-forcible measures. The unilateral non- forcible measures,...