About The Centre

The Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect's mission is (1) to advance the responsibility to protect norm in the Asia Pacific region through research-driven policy dialogue, and (2) to help states build the capacity to prevent genocide and mass atrocities through policy-relevant research.    

The Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect is the only regional centre of its kind specifically dedicated to advancing the responsibility to protect principle through research and policy dialogue.  We conduct outreach activities such as seminars and workshops with various government, civil society and academic stakeholders to build local and regional constituencies seeking to dispel skepticism of and deepen commitment to R2P through country programmes and Track II dialogue. Although the Centre engages with stakeholders across the Asia Pacific, its primary focus for country programmes are Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Dialogue at the regional level is undertaken through the Council for Security Cooperation in the Asia Pacific (CSCAP) Study Group on R2P, which seeks to develop a set of recommendations for strengthening the capacity to prevent and respond to mass atrocities for consideration by the ASEAN Regional Forum, the main security dialogue framework in the Asia Pacific. To further the aim of assisting states to build the capacity to prevent genocide and mass atrocities covered by R2P, the Centre undertakes policy-relevant research to deepen understanding of the preconditions and causes of mass atrocities, the prevention of mass atrocities in the Southeast Asian context, and mainstreaming R2P in peacekeeping operations. Based on this research, the Centre conducts outreach and training with government and civil society representatives to develop context-sensitive mass atrocities prevention 'toolkits', which include exercises for strengthening skills for mass atrocities risk assessment and crisis preparedness.

The Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect is an associate of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (GCR2P) and a member of the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect (ICRtoP)-which are both based in New York-and a member of the Consortium on Non-Traditional Security in Asia (NTS-Asia) based in Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. We look to these partnerships to enhance our ability to contribute to a shared consensus on the value of R2P and generate creative policy recommendations to make a material difference in the lives of at-risk civilian populations.

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