On July 17 the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a resolution (A/HRC/44/L.12) marking the “Fifteenth anniversary of the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, as enshrined in the World Summit Outcome of 2005.” The resolution was adopted by a vote of 32 in favour, 1 against and 14 abstentions.

Although the HRC has adopted more than 50 resolutions that make reference to Responsibility to Protect principles, this was the first stand-alone thematic resolution on the subject.