CIAO DATE: 01/2013
October 2012
Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre
Two of the major planks of India’s approach to the issue of the protection of civilians are sovereign capacity and the carrying out of the responsibility to protect civilians. It seeks to combine the two by arguing that the enhancement of sovereign capacity is the prerequisite for the effective discharge of this responsibility. While capacity is necessary for carrying out such a responsibility, is it a sufficient condition for ensuring that civilians are properly protected in situations of conflict? It is paradoxical that although India continues to be known as the world’s largest democracy, it does not have a very impressive record of discharging the responsibility to protect civilians. This may be explained by the fact that India has been successful in keeping insurgency and violence confined to a limited number of zones such that their effects do not spill over into the rest of the country, while the institutions of formal democracy survive in the rest of India. Given India’s sensitivity to the issue of sovereignty, the strengthening of the country’s civil society institutions and popular movements are perhaps the only way to increase its willingness to carry out the responsibility to protect civilians.
Resource link: Capacity with responsibility: India's position on the protection of civilians [PDF]