‘Water on a Stone’: Protecting religious minorities from mass atrocities through the operationalisation of the Responsibility to Protect.

Abstract

Religious persecution is on the rise around the world, and in some regions, its severity reaches genocidal levels. Unfortunately, under the current system of protection, international action to prevent mass atrocities is often only taken once violence reaches a certain threshold. Nevertheless, there has also been an increased mainstreaming of freedom of religion or belief in foreign policies worldwide, which, the present work argues, may provide the necessary political cohesion for improving the operationalisation of States’ Responsibility to Protect. Recognising that atrocity prevention is a multilayer endeavour that cannot be divorced from political considerations, this study identifies opportunities for producing change at the universal, regional and subregional, and inter-State levels.