<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>Title: Anti-genocide activists and the Responsibility to Protect<br></div>Author: Annette Jansen<br></div>Published at: Routledge Humanitarian Studies Series: <span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif">See: <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Anti-genocide-Activists-and-the-Responsibility-to-Protect/Jansen/p/book/9781138691414" target="_blank">https://www.routledge.com/Anti-genocide-Activists-and-the-Responsibility-to-Protect/Jansen/p/book/9781138691414</a><br></span></span></span></div><span><span style="color:rgb(0,0,255)"><span style="font-family:tahoma,sans-serif"><font color="#000000">Free chapter availble on: </font></span></span></span><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif"> page
</span><a href="https://www.routledge.com/posts/12212" target="_blank"><span style="font-size:11pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif">https://www.routledge.com/<wbr>posts/12212</span></a> <div><div><div><div><div><br>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Genocide and ethnic cleansing already occur since the
early 19th century but only in the late 1990s groups of activists emerged that
called for military interventions to halt these mass atrocities. Who are these
anti-genocide activists and what motivates them to call for the use of violence
to end violence? Annette Jansen studied the beliefs and worldviews of two
groups of anti-genocide activists: East Timor solidarity activists and Responsibility
to Protect (R2P)-advocates. Based on eleven months of field research and 71
in-depth interviews, Jansen analysed the ideological convictions on the base of
which these activists make moral judgments on human suffering and violence.</span><span lang="EN-GB"><span> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">The book argues that
there is an existential undercurrent to the call for mass atrocity
interventions. Mass atrocities shock the activists’ belief in a humanity that
they hold to be sacred: that they are willing to fight for. The book chapters
describe and analyse different aspects of this holy war. Who or what is this
humanity that the activists seek to protect? What is it in mass atrocities that
makes the activists respond with such horror? What styles of persuasion and
moral authority do the activists employ to advocate their cause? Who should be
the guardian of humanity in the eyes of the activists? </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">The book concludes
that the rise of anti-genocide activism signals a shift in humanitarian
sensibilities to human suffering and violence. </span><span lang="EN-GB">This
shift has substantial implications for moral judgments on human lives at peril </span><span lang="EN-GB">in the humanitarian and human rights
community.</span><b><span lang="EN-GB"></span></b></p>
<br><div class="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><br>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><b><span lang="EN-GB">Abstracts</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"><span>1.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-GB">Introduction</span></i><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Chapter one introduces the case studies, arguing that
the UN sanctioned military intervention in East Timor (1999) was an important
if not key inspiration for the subsequent development of the notion of the
responsibility to protect. The Introduction continues by providing the
theoretical frame for the study by proposing a notion of a ‘sacred in the
secular’ that may help to better understand the worldviews of anti-genocide
activists, and R2P-advocates in particular. It furthermore positions this book
within a newly emerging field of study tentatively called ‘the critical
historical-anthropological study of humanitarianism’. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"><span>2.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-GB">A history of two movements</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Chapter two describes the historical backdrop of the
evolving interest in mass atrocity interventions. It studies the major
developments that altered the nature and orientation of humanitarian and human
rights activism from roughly 1975<span> </span>to
2011. The shock over the genocide in Rwanda and the ethnic cleansings in former
Yugoslavia are identified as historical events that drastically changed the
mood in humanitarian and human rights activism. The chapter furthermore
observes that the idealism of the East Timor solidarity activists has been
replaced by the realism of R2P-advocates. It argues that professionalization
changed the nature of activism from a calling into a career.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"><span>3.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-GB">Preserving the life of the
group</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Chapter three studies the specifics of the concern
for the preservation of collective life amongst anti-genocide activists. </span><span lang="EN-GB">The collective life that the East
Timor solidarity activists aimed to protect was that of a ‘people’, defined in
essentially political terms</span><span lang="EN-GB">. R2P-advocates on the other
hand strive to protect the more depoliticized life of ‘populations’ -</span><span lang="EN-GB"> of groups void of any political or
identifiable characteristics. Whereas East Timor activists explained their
empathy as an expression of international solidarity with the suffering other,
R2P-advocates explained their empathy referring to the reciprocal obligation to
protect each other from mass atrocities.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"><span>4.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-GB">Horror at mass atrocities</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Chapter four traces the ideological assumptions that
make anti-genocide activists respond with horror to mass atrocities. East Timor
solidarity activists were horrified by atrocities inflicted on the Timorese as
they feared the erasure of a distinct people, and of the right to
self-determination - that they regard as essential to human dignity. R2P-advocates
experience mass atrocities as existential threats to the whole of humanity and
human civilization. The notion that the obligation to protect each other from
mass atrocities can be replaced by a ‘norm’ of bestial slaughtering can evoke
deep feelings of horror among R2P-advocates.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"><span>5.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-GB">Advocating moral truths</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Chapter five studies how both groups of anti-genocide
activists produce, present and sanction evidence to mobilize support for their
moral truth claim. East Timor activists ‘speak truth to power’ by firmly
placing themselves outside the governmental power that they criticize.
R2P-advocates speak the voice of expertise and professionalism instead. The
chapter also identifies a difference in the kind of evidence that each of the
groups use to build their case. Testimonial evidence is highly valued by the
East Timor activists as representing the voice and will of the East Timorese
people. R2P-advocates prefer factual and forensic evidence to advocate their
case.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin:0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"><span>6.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><i><span lang="EN-GB">Legitimizing interventions</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB">Chapter six studies the views of both groups of
anti-genocide activists on the principle of sovereignty, and on the related
duties of the sovereign state or ruler. East Timor activists ground sovereignty
in the people. If the sovereign fails in its protection duties, the people have
the right to resist and revolt. R2P-advocates opt for a model that confers the
sovereignty to decide on mass atrocity interventions to the United Nations. The
power to decide on one’s own destiny is removed from the very bodies at stake in
mass atrocities to the external body politic of the international community.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0.0001pt;text-align:justify"><i><span lang="EN-GB">Conclusions:
the sacralization of humanity</span></i><span lang="EN-GB"> </span></p>
<span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-GB">The Conclusions argue that the rise of
anti-genocide activism signals a shift in moral sensibilities to human
suffering and violence within the broader humanitarian and human rights
community. O</span><span style="font-size:11pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"" lang="EN-GB">ther than earlier human
rights activists who advocate the rights of individuals, anti-genocide
activists concentrate on the preservation of collective life, that is, of the
sacred community of humanity. The power to decide on mass atrocity
interventions is removed from the very people threatened by mass atrocities to
the UN. This decisively puts the spotlight on the bystanders of genocide as the
only actors in the position to save humanity. </span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div>
</div></div></div></div></div></div></div>