The doctrine of the responsibility to protect remains among the most intensively discussed concepts in international law: Its legally binding force still doubted and its scope of application remaining undefined, reactions of the international community in recent conflicts such as Libya, however, were not conclusive as to predicate further advancements of the norm functioning as a strategy for fighting massive human rights violations. But how to respond to such trouble spots, especially if the Security Council is deadlocked? Hence, the paper proposes some new thoughts on the concept, including not just a moral but a legal obligation, by relegating to the concept of ius cogens under international law. It will be shown that a legal obligation to act may be constructed under certain preconditions bearing repercussions to the doctrine of RtoP as well as to the question of how to oblige the Security Council to act instead of deadlocking itself.
