Description:

In 2005, the UN General Assembly unanimously endorsed the Responsibility-to-Protect (R2P) doctrine, which allows interventions to prevent massive human rights violations whenever states are unable or unwilling to do so. The focus on intervention raises fears that the international protection of human rights poses a direct threat to the sovereignty of states. Against this view, Cristina Lafont shows how the acceptance of an international responsibility for human rights protection can strengthen the sovereignty of states within global economic institutions or in their dealings with transnational corporations.

Cristina Lafont is a faculty member in the department of philosophy. Her current research focuses on normative questions in political philosophy concerning democracy and citizen participation, global governance, human rights, religion and politics. She is the director of the Program in Critical Theory and co-director of the Research Group on Global Capitalism and Law funded by a “Big Ideas” grant of the Buffett Institute.

This is part of the Buffett Institute Faculty & Fellows Colloquium. Find it on Facebook.