". . . if humanitarian intervention is, indeed, an unacceptable assault on sovereignty, how should we respond to a Rwanda, to a Srebrenica -- to gross and systematic violations of human rights that offend every precept of our common humanity? . . . Surely no legal principle -- not even sovereignty -- can ever shield crimes against humanity . . . Armed intervention must always remain the option of last resort, but in the face of mass murder, it is an option that cannot be relinquished."
Responding to this challenge from the UN Secretary-General, Canada's Prime Minister Jean Chrétien announced the establishment of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty during the United Nations Millennium Summit in September 2000.
The Commission was launched by then Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy on September 14, 2000, with a mandate to promote a comprehensive debate on the relationship between intervention and sovereignty, with a view to fostering global political consensus on how to move from polemics towards action within the international system.
Much as the Brundtland Commission on Environment and Development in the 1980s took the apparently irreconcilable issues of development and environmental protection and, through the process of an intense intellectual and political debate, emerged with the notion of "sustainable development," it was hoped that ICISS would be able to find new ways of reconciling the seemingly irreconcilable notions of intervention and state sovereignty.
The Appointment of the Commissioners
In August 2000, The Government of Canada invited the Honourable Gareth Evans of Australia, and
His Excellency Mohamed Sahnoun of Algeria to head the Commission. In consultation with the Co-Chairs, ten additional Commissioners from diverse regional and professional backgrounds were
appointed in September 2000.
The Role of the Advisory Board
An advisory board of serving and former Foreign Ministers and other dignitaries, chaired by former
Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy was appointed to serve as the political reference point
for Commissioners and to provide ICISS with overall political guidance during its mandate.
Commission Meetings
Five full meetings of the Commission were convened between November 2000 and September
2001. The meetings were held in Ottawa, Maputo, New Delhi, Wakefield and in Brussels. There
was also an informal Commission meeting in Geneva on February 1, 2001 and further meetings of
small groups of Commissioners in the roundtables and consultations described below.
At their first meeting, Commissioners considered a series of central questions, identified the key issues and decided on a general approach. An early draft outline of the Report was then developed and circulated. This outline was considered at the Geneva meeting in early February, and expanded further at the Maputo meeting in March. A subsequent draft was then produced in May, circulated to Commissioners for consideration and initial comment, and considered in more detail at the New Delhi meeting in June. Significant changes to the substance and structure of the report were agreed to at that meeting. On this basis, a further draft was produced and circulated in early July, with Commissioners making specific written comments.
The remaining stages of the process involved the Co-Chairs themselves - meeting in Brussels over several days in July - producing a further full-length draft, with substantial written input from a number of other Commissioners. The Co-Chairs' Draft, distributed to Commissioners a week in advance of the Commission meeting in Wakefield, was then considered in exhaustive detail over four days, with the terms of the report ultimately being accepted unanimously. A further meeting of the Commission was held in Brussels at the end of September to consider the implications for the report of the horrifying terrorist attacks on New York and Washington DC earlier that month. This resulted in a number of adjustments to the final text as published.
Consultation
In order to stimulate debate and ensure that the Commission heard the broadest possible range of
views during the course of its mandate, eleven regional roundtables and national consultations were
held around the world between January and July 2001. In chronological order, they were held in
Ottawa (January 15), Geneva (January 30-31), London (February 3), Maputo (March 4), Washington,
DC (May 2), Santiago (May 4), Cairo (May 21), Paris (May 23), New Delhi (June 10), Beijing (June
14) and St Petersburg (July 16). Summaries of the issues discussed in these meetings, and lists
of those participating in them, may be found in the supplementary volume accompanying the
Commission's report.
At least one, and usually both, of the Co-Chairs attended each of these consultations, often with other Commissioners. A variety of national and regional officials, and representatives of civil society, NGOs, academic institutions and think-tanks were invited to each of the meetings.
Regular briefings were also given to interested governments in capitals, as well as to diplomatic missions in Ottawa, Geneva and most recently in New York on June 26-27, 2001, where the Commission met with representatives from a number of Permanent Missions as well as with Secretary-General Annan and key members of the UN Secretariat. Consultations were also held in Geneva on January 31, 2001 with the heads or senior representative of major international organisations (UN Office Geneva; UNHCR; Commission on Human Rights; WHO; IOM; ICRC/IFRCS; and OCHA).
Research
An extensive programme of research was organized in support of the Commission's work. Aiming
to build upon and complement the many efforts previously undertaken on these issues,
Commissioners drew upon the record of debate and discussion generated at the UN and in regional
and other fora; the vast body of already published scholarly and policy research on this topic,
including a number of important independent and nationally sponsored studies; and a series of
papers and studies specially commissioned for the ICISS.
To supplement and consolidate the intellectual dimension of the Commission's work, an international research team was created. This was led jointly by Thomas G. Weiss of the United States, Presidential Professor at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) where he is also co-director of the UN Intellectual History Project, and Stanlake J.T.M. Samkange, of Zimbabwe, a lawyer and former speechwriter to UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali. Tom Weiss, with research consultant Don Hubert of Canada, assumed primary responsibility for producing the research papers contained in the supplementary volume, while Stanlake J.T.M. Samkange's primary role was as rapporteur, assisting the Commission in the drafting of its report.
The Commission Report, The Responsibility to Protect
The final Report of the Commission, The Responsibility to Protect, is the culmination of twelve
months of intensive research, world-wide consultations and deliberations. It pulled together the work
of ICISS in a concise document encapsulating the Commissioners' views on intervention and state
sovereignty and their recommendations for practical action. A supplementary volume accompanying
the Report contains research papers addressing all the issues in a comprehensive, balanced and
up-to-date way, as well as an extensive bibliography of the best past writings in the field.
On December 18, 2001, the report was formally presented to Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the United Nations community, where it will hopefully build a new consensus in the debate the Commission was mandated to advance.
The report and the supplementary volume have been produced and made available in CD-ROM form, with the bibliography cross-referenced with key-words to enhance its utility as a research tool. These and other documents also appear on the special ICISS web site - www.iciss-ciise.gc.ca - which will be maintained for at least the next five years.