Search results

Deploying a lens informed by humanitarian reason and governmentality this article interrogates the normative assumptions underlying resettlement for international protection in the Irish context. Drawing on findings from a qualitative study on the needs of children and parents admitted under the Irish Refugee Protection Programme, it highlights tensions and contradictions underemphasised in the existing literature, including those deriving from assumptions which inversely associate age with integrate-ability. Such assumptions place a heavy burden on the young, perceived to be the most adaptable. The danger pointed to in this article is that those deemed least adaptable - adults with limited prior education - might not be prioritised for supports due to negative assumptions about their prospects. Somewhat paradoxically, the 'most adaptable' – children resettled at primary-school age or younger – might also miss out on supports as they are deemed likely to succeed in any case.

Abstract
The current discussion on R2P at the UN is largely ahistorical or at most informed by selective historical references, which exclude earlier forms of intervention aimed at atrocity prevention, particularly by states in the global South. This contribution argues that the result is a skewed understanding of the practice of intervention that serves to deny agency to actors outside of the West and undermines the framing of atrocity prevention and R2P as an issue of global concern.

This article provides an overview of the South African government's evolving position on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). While the country was an advocate of R2P in the run-up to the 2005 United Nations (UN) World Summit and the related idea of non-indifference in Africa, its conduct while serving as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and subsequent developments have raised questions about its continued commitment to these principles. In particular, Resolution 1973 (2011) on Libya proved to be a turning point. It is argued that while South Africa continues to support the broad idea of civilian protection, it is in favour of a consultative, regional approach and has become increasingly critical of what it views as the selective application and militarisation of the R2P. In trying to make sense of the apparent contradictions in South Africa's position, it is necessary to situate the debate against the background of broader tensions in its foreign policy, particularly around the promotion of human rights. These, in turn, are linked to divergent and multiple foreign policy identities that the post-apartheid state is still coming to terms with.

This article provides an overview of the South African government's evolving position on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). While the country was an advocate of R2P in the run-up to the 2005 United Nations (UN) World Summit and the related idea of non-indifference in Africa, its conduct while serving as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and subsequent developments have raised questions about its continued commitment to these principles. In particular, Resolution 1973 (2011) on Libya proved to be a turning point. It is argued that while South Africa continues to support the broad idea of civilian protection, it is in favour of a consultative, regional approach and has become increasingly critical of what it views as the selective application and militarisation of the R2P. In trying to make sense of the apparent contradictions in South Africa's position, it is necessary to situate the debate against the background of broader tensions in its foreign policy, particularly around the promotion of human rights. These, in turn, are linked to divergent and multiple foreign policy identities that the post-apartheid state is still coming to terms with.

Cooperation between the BRICS states is often framed as being a part of new forms of South-South Cooperation (SSC). This is clearly problematic, given the presence of Russia, which is neither geographically nor historically part of the Global South, and China, which sufers from schizophrenia when it comes to its identity as part of the developing world. In spite of this, South-South rhetoric is used by both policymakers and scholars when referring to BRICS. This needs to be problematized as it suggests a particular kind of cooperation – diferent from traditional North-South cooperation. The idea of SSC tends to evoke a positive image of solidarity between developing countries through the exchange of resources, technology, and knowledge. This is intended to shift the international balance of power and help developing nations break away from aid dependence and achieve true emancipation from former colonial powers – with the underlying assumption that it is always mutually benefcial (mutual beneft being one of the principles of SSC identifed by the UN ofce for SSC).