ABOUT THIS BOOK

Since the end of World War II and the founding of the United Nations, genocide, crimes against humanity, and other mass atrocities have been explicitly illegal. When such crimes are committed, the international community has an obligation to respond, which has come to be known as “the responsibility to protect.”

Parallel to this responsibility, two related responsibilities have developed: to prosecute those responsible for the crimes, and to provide humanitarian relief to the victims—what Kurt Mills in this book calls the “responsibility to palliate.” While this rhetoric of protection is well used by the international community, its application in practice has been erratic at best. In International Responses to Mass Atrocities in Africa, Mills develops a typology of responses to mass atrocities, considering four cases in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and Darfur. Putting the cases into historical context and analyzing them according to this typology, Mills investigates the limitations of these responses and calls for such responses to be implemented in a more timely and thoughtful manner. Mills provides critical analysis of the possibilities for the international community to respond to humanitarian crises in the future.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Kurt Mills is professor of International Relations and Human Rights at the University of Dundee. He is the vice-chair of the Academic Council on the United Nations System, a senior fellow of the Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, and a member of the European Network of the European Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. As vice president of the International Studies Association (ISA) he founded the human rights section of ISA.

REVIEWS

"Kurt Mills does an excellent job of examining the conundrums inherent in responding to human rights abuses in conflict with a unique and comprehensive analytical framework. This book is crucial reading for both academics and practitioners in the humanita

"Kurt Mills takes seriously our collective responsibility to halt atrocities, to prosecute their perpetrators, and to help those in the cross-hairs of armed conflicts. His focus is Africa, where feeble international responses in too many crises have demonstrated that "never again" is an aspiration and not a reality. His is an indispensable guide for anyone thinking about how to respond to conscience-shocking international crimes." –Thomas G. Weiss, The CUNY Graduate Center

"Too often, it is taken for granted that the international community's political, judicial and humanitarian responses to major crises are complementary. In this important volume, Kurt Mills explodes that myth and demonstrates the tensions between them and the ways in which they sometimes undermine one another. Combining detailed examination of some of the most crucial contemporary cases with a keen sense for broader political and normative trends, this is one of those rare volumes that is successful both at diagnosing the problem and offering viable solutions. With fine prose, Mills offers an important new perspective that will shape debate about how to respond to civil wars, mass atrocities and other humanitarian crises for years to come.” —Alex J. Bellamy, The University of Queensland, Australia

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword to the Paperback Edition Introduction 1. Interrogating International Responsibilities 2. Rwanda: The Failure of “Never Again” 3. Democratic Republic of the Congo: Protecting Civilians? 4. Uganda (and Beyond): Testing the International Criminal Court 5. Darfur: The Post-World Summit Test 6. Realizing R2P3: Labeling, Institutions, and Authority Notes Bibliography