Exploring New Approaches for Atrocity Prevention:

From a “Responsibility to Protect” to a “Right to Assist” Civil Resistance Campaigns

Join ICNC and the U.S. Institute of Peace for a discussion on ICNC’s new Special Report, Preventing Mass Atrocities: From a Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) to a Right to Assist (RtoA) Campaigns of Civil Resistance. Drawing from social science research and insights from practitioners, this Report proposes a new doctrine called “The Right to Assist” that strengthens external support for nonviolent civil resistance campaigns demanding rights, freedom and justice against non-democratic rule.

This event will address how such external support can help avert atrocities and civil war and increase the prospects for long-term democratic stability. It will also offer detail on how the Right to Assist doctrine could be implemented by laying out a five-part typology of forms of international assistance, and considering external support from the perspectives of efficacy, international law, practical concerns, and possible unintended consequences.

Date: Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Time: 3:00 – 4:30pm EDT

Where: U.S. Institute of Peace
2301 Constitution Ave NW
Washington, DC 20037

Register Now


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Quscondy Abdulshafi
Research Consultant,
Dexis Consulting Group-OTI/USAID

Ariela Blätter
Program Officer, Atrocities Prevention and Response,
Wellspring Philanthropic Fund

Alejandra Espinoza
Executive Director,
Voices of Nicaragua

Nancy Lindborg
President and CEO,
U.S. Institute of Peace

Hardy Merriman
President,
ICNC

Maria Stephan
Director, Program on Nonviolent Action,
U.S. Institute of Peace

Events of the last decade demand new approaches to atrocity prevention that are adaptable, innovative and independent of a state-centered doctrine. With the aim of reducing risk factors such as civil war, we argue for a new normative framework called The Right to Assist (RtoA), which could strengthen international coordination and support for nonviolent civil resistance campaigns demanding rights, freedom and justice against non-democratic rule.

RtoA would:

1) Engage a wide range of stakeholders such as NGOs, states, multilateral institutions and others;

2) Bolster various factors of resilience against state fragility; and

3) Incentivize opposition groups to sustain commitment to nonviolent strategies of change.

The adoption of this doctrine can reduce the probability of violent conflict that significantly heightens atrocity risk, while increasing the prospects for constructive human development.

Read the Special Report