Abstract
This study was inspired by the albino killings which are taking place in East and Southern Africa. People living with albinism are being hunted down, killed or maimed as a means to harvest their body parts. These body parts are then used to make 'magical' portions or talismans which are believed to bring good fortune to the bearers, hence they have attracted the interest of businessmen, politicians, artisanal miners, fishermen and many other people. The African community, has not done or said much to end this problem, this is despite the fact that these killings take place in contemporary Africa endowed with all the possible means to put to an end to the killings or at least bring to justice the perpetrators of these killings. To this end, this study investigated the killings in the context of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine.
The central proposition underlying this was whether R2P could then be invoked to protect people living with albinism from being killed or maimed for their body parts. The issue at stake was to understand whether the international community had a direct obligation to protect and to invoke R2P to protect this vulnerable group of people in times of peace, this is bearing in mind the general understanding society has of R2P. The study also sought to come to a place where ifR2P could then be understood and interpreted outside of war, it would then be possible also to use the same principle to protect other vulnerable groups of people such as the victims of modern day slave trade, illegal organ harvesting and human trafficking – whose responsibility to protect still falls under the international community by virtue of these people being first and most human beings.
In order to arrive at the presented conclusions this study primarily and extensively used the documentary analysis method coupled with the process tracing method to investigate the questions under study. The significance of this study is that it broadens our contemporary understanding of R2P. It shifts understanding from a militaristic perspective to a more general humanitarian standpoint whose application is broader. This is premised on the argument that R2P does not originate from-as much as it has been primarily discussed during wartime. Instead, R2P focuses on assisting any group of people whose [human security] is compromised due to circumstances beyond their control.
This study has shown that it is possible to apply R2P outside of war to protect vulnerable groups of people. More so the thesis has attempted to show that the African community (Regional Economic Communities, the AU and the UN) have in place legal and political mechanism which can ideally be used to protect people from crimes against humanity. However the study has also shown that there is lack of political will to ensure that these laws and political obligations can be abided by.