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• A version of this post ran on the author's blog, jbriski.wordpress.com. The views expressed are the author's own.

The public statement made by the Ambassador of Costa Rica in regards to the situation in Syria was so notable I thought it deserved its own blog post.

After speaking out boldly against the on-going human rights violations being perpetrated by the al-Assad regime against the people of Syria, the Ambassador went on to question the Security Council itself:

Costa Rica has been a key player in the development of the concept of Responsibility to Protect (R2P). Although in practice the concept of R2P can be somewhat complex, in theory, it’s based on three pillars:

1. State sovereignty implies responsibility of leaders to protect the people from things like internal conflict, insurgency, repression, and state failure.

2. The international community has the responsibility to assist a state if it is unable to live up to its own responsibility to protect.

3. When in conflict, the international community’s responsibility to protect is paramount.

The primary argument against R2P, understandably, is that it is a challenge to national sovereignty.

But sovereignty is a privilege, not a right, proponents assert. If a nation’s leaders fail to uphold their own responsibility to protect, it is the responsibility of the world community to intervene, because the national leaders have proven themselves unable or unwilling to accomplish their primary responsibility as leaders.

Costa Rica has a special type of moral authority to speak on these issues. After being torn by civil war, the military was abolished in 1948. While the Land of Pura Vida maintains small forces for law enforcement and foreign peacekeeping missions, a 1949 constitutional amendment made it literally unconstitutional to establish permanent standing armed forces in Costa Rica. Money that would go toward training and equipping the military has been invested in education and social services.

While Costa Rica has not been without its challenges post-military abolition, Alex Sanchez noted in a June 2011 analysis for the Council on Hemispheric Affairs:

But it’s also in the national interest of Costa Rica to support the Responsibility to Protect and other international cooperation initiatives. As President Laura Chinchilla noted in her September 2010 remarks before the UN General Assembly, Costa Rica is completely dependent on universal respect for International Law and multilateral organizations for its national security.

Given that the UN resolution on Syria did not call for use of force (neither arming the rebels nor attacking the al-Assad regime directly), but rather supported the Arab League’s plan for a peaceful transition, it makes sense that Costa Rica would support the resolution so boldly.

– Jackie Briski is a Latin Americanist and author of the blog cuando asi no sea.

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