Seminar: Afrika og ansvaret for at beskytte

TIME: Wednesday, 7 November, 13.30 – 15.30

VENUE: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, Strandgade 71, ground floor, Christianshavn, 1401 Copenhagen K

TIME: Wednesday, 7 November, 13.30 – 15.30

VENUE: Danish Institute for International Studies, Main Auditorium, Strandgade 71, ground floor, Christianshavn, 1401 Copenhagen K

In recent years, international responses to complex crises in the Global South have been influenced by two distinct trends: The emergence and possible consolidation of the ‘responsibility to protect’ norm (R2P), and the expanding role of regional organizations in maintaining international peace and security.

While the two trends are not entirely overlapping they are widely understood as timely elements in the building of a strong international system of collective security. The UN Secretary-General has thus strongly encouraged the African Union to contribute to implementing the R2P, and the African Union on their part sees it as only natural that they appropriate and ‘africanize’ universal norms, such as the R2P.

Implementing global norms through regional actors, however, is far from unproblematic. The seminar explores the tensions and dilemmas that arise in the meeting between the R2P and the African Union.

Drawing on the case of Libya, it will discuss how the discourse of protection is evolving within the African Union and suggests that there are critical differences in the way R2P is understood at the global/UN level compared to the regional/AU level.

Speaker:

Linnéa Gelot is a Postdoc Researcher at the Gothenburg Centre of Globalization and Development (GCDG) and a researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala. Her research focuses on peace and conflict management with a special focus on the relationship between Africa and the United Nations. She is the author of Legitimacy, Peace Operations and Global-Regional Security: The African Union-United Nations Partnership in Darfur (Routledge, 2012).

Programme:

13.30-13.40: Introduction; Louise Riis Andersen, Postdoc, DIIS

13.40-14.25: Responsibility to Protect and the African Union: Adapting International Norms in a Regional Setting; Linnéa Gelot, Postdoc, GCDG

14.25-14.40: Coffee Break

14.40-15.30: Q & A

Chair: Louise Riis Andersen, Postdoc, DIIS

The seminar will be held in English.

Participation is free of charge, but registration is required. Please use the online registration form on the website no later than Tuesday, 6 November at 12 noon.

Please await confirmation by e-mail from DIIS for participation.