Outreach

Noel often likens our outreach to the preparation of a well-loved Philippine rice cake: for best results, the bibingka is cooked by fire lit from above and below-too little of either leaves it inconsistent and sometimes unpalatable. We believe that matching 'top-down' global advocacy and research with 'bottom up' local expertise and outreach is essential for generating recommendations to advance the R2P framework while also reflecting regional norms and sensitivities. This approach renders R2P more palatable to policymakers and political constituencies in the region, yet ensures that regional preventive efforts are consistent with the global aspiration for the horrors of Rwanda and Cambodia to be a matter of history rather than practice. The process of constituency building at the domestic level can contribute significantly to the effective implementation of regional agreements on conflict prevention, peace building, and post-conflict reconstruction, and foster the internalization of sovereignty as responsibility in the long term.

A principle aim of the Centre is to advance the R2P concept in the Asia Pacific, to make it a reliable factor in international crisis handling and to contribute to building capacity to protect populations from mass atrocities. A key challenge in this process is to connect research and policy prescriptions with practice. This requires insight into why and under what conditions extreme violence occurs, which actors and institutions are involved in developing policies to prevent and respond to mass atrocities, and how these actors might be engaged in deepening consensus and delineating strategies to more ably mitigate grave risks. Understood this way, R2P is 'advanced' not only through deepening knowledge of the causes of mass atrocities and determining appropriate preventive action, but also in 'reaching out' to policymakers and their constituents and advisors.

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