The International Responsibility to Protect and the Conflict in Darfur

The political and legal dynamics surrounding the conflict in Darfur, Sudan threaten the entire structure of the international Responsibility to Protect (RtoP). General concern in the west and Africa has been expressed in different clusters of principles and policy directives. Collectively, they maintain that the primary responsibility of a state is to protect its citizens. Such protection should include prevention, reaction and rebuilding. In this chapter, I examine the origin and characteristics of the conflict and the nature of alternative dispute resolution and peacekeeping in Darfur. I argue that, political considerations in this conflict, as well as the competing interests of those interested in the conflict-i.e. the United Nations (UN), the African Union (AU), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and the United States (US) government-have led to (political and legal) tensions, especially with regards to the questions of genocide, Sudan's sovereignty and peacekeeping in the troubled region of Darfur.