Invisible or Indispensable? The role of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the Special Adviser the Responsibility to Protect

When endorsing the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005, member states of the UN-General Assembly also agreed to support the mission of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide (SAPG). Appointed in 2004 to collect information and to serve as an early warning capacity to the Secretary General and the Security Council, the SAPG - post held by Francis Deng - constitutes an institutional intersection within the UN architecture on the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. Since 2008, the work of the SAPG is complemented by the Special Adviser on the R2P, Edward Luck, who is responsible for the conceptual development of the R2P and consensus building among member states. Until now the role and the work of both Special Advisers have been underresearched aspects of the development of the R2P within the UN-framework. Seeking to address this gap, the paper examines the contributions made by the two Special Advisers to the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities. It thereby addresses the prevelant critique of the Special Advisers’ limited “visibility”. The paper focuses on the strategies of the two Special Advisers as well as on their relationship with other UN-organs and civil society actors. In this context, combining the analysis of Deng’s focus on implementation and Luck’s focus on conceptual aspects permits to draw a nuanced picture of the development of the R2P in the UN-framework. this empirical paper is based on qualitative Expert Interviews conducted with staff members of the two Special Advisers and with civil society representatives working on the R2P.