The Canadian Centre for the Responsibility to Protect (CCR2P) is a non-profit research organization which aims to promote scholarly engagement and political implementation of the principle. The Responsibility to Protect, also referred to as RtoP or R2P, is a newly emerging norm coined in 2001 and later adopted by 150 states at the 2005 World Summit, which maintains that when sovereign states are unable or unwilling to fulfill their responsibility to protect their own populations from genocide and other mass atrocities, the international community has the responsibility to do so. Based at the University of Toronto, the CCR2P has five core mandates:

1) To conduct research on the normative, conceptual and political dimensions of the R2P principle
2) To trace the evolution of the Canadian government’s policies with regards to the R2P principle
3) To serve as a hub for information, research and analyses on R2P
4) To communicate its R2P-related findings with the academic community, political actors, civil society groups and the general public on a regular basis (print and online media)
5) To provide a forum for discussion on controversies related to R2P

By working closely with the Munk School for Global Affairs and the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto, the CCR2P will seek to develop networks with various academic institutes both within and outside of Canada. While R2P today still remains “a concept, not yet a policy” the founders of the CCR2P hope that rigorous research and policy recommendations from the Institute would be a step closer to the actual implementation of the R2P in the near future.