[TimorLesteStudies] New book on motivations and beliefs of East Timor solidarity activists

[Annette Jansen]

Title: Anti-genocide activists and the Responsibility to Protect
Author: Annette Jansen
Published at: Routledge Humanitarian Studies Series: See:
https://www.routledge.com/Anti-genocide-Activists-and-the-Responsibility-to-Protect/Jansen/p/book/9781138691414
Free chapter availble on: page https://www.routledge.com/posts/12212

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.



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?



The book concludes that the rise of anti-genocide activism signals a shift
in humanitarian sensibilities to human suffering and violence. This shift
has substantial implications for moral judgments on human lives at peril in
the humanitarian and human rights community.


*Abstracts*

1.       *Introduction*

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’.



2.       *A history of two movements*

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  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.



3.       *Preserving the life of the group*

Chapter three studies the specifics of the concern for the preservation of
collective life amongst anti-genocide activists. The collective life that
the East Timor solidarity activists aimed to protect was that of a
‘people’, defined in essentially political terms. R2P-advocates on the
other hand strive to protect the more depoliticized life of ‘populations’ -
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.



4.       *Horror at mass atrocities*

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.



5.       *Advocating moral truths*

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.



6.       *Legitimizing interventions*

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.



*Conclusions: the sacralization of humanity*
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. Other 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.
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