Refugees within the framework of the responsibility to protect: a comparison of the cases of Libya and Syria

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, Uluslararası İlişkiler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2017

Öğrenci: SELİN KUL

Danışman: BAŞAK KALE LACK

Özet:

The Arab uprisings and subsequent civil wars have influenced many countries in the Middle East, and over time led to one of the largest refugee movements since World War II. Libya and Syria, which have been the greatest sources of mass movements of refugees and asylum seekers, have had considerable impact on the neighbouring countries. The policies developed by the international community, especially by the European Union, in response to the mass movement of peoples have remained weak, and eventually the situation has turned into a protection crisis. This thesis aims to reveal the link between refugee protection and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle. Accordingly, it addresses the international responsibility for the protection of refugees within the framework of R2P, which as a principle establishes that sovereignty brings with it the responsibility of a state towards its population, and if that state is unable or unwilling to fulfil this responsibility, then it should be undertaken by the international community. In this context, the R2P is presented as a complementary element to tackle with the deficiencies of the existing refugee protection legislation, wherein the responsibility for the protection of refugees is to be included within the peaceful measures of the principle. To this end, the cases of Libya and Syria, which are widely accepted in the literature as two prominent R2P cases are analysed comparatively in relation to the refugee protection crisis over the last six years.