States' framing of mass atrocity crimes From introducing to preserving the responsibility to protect

The Responsibility to Protect (R2P) renders state sovereignty conditional when mass atrocities are perpetrated. It was conceptualized as a new norm in response to the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, and adopted by the UN General Assembly in 2005. Since then, it has been referenced in numerous resolutions at different UN bodies. However, the R2P continues to be contested, and, against the backdrop of an increasingly illiberal world order, norm supporters’ activities have shifted from introducing to preserving it. The chapter focuses on three prominent R2P supporters, Denmark, Sweden, and Canada, asking how they rhetorically frame the norm. Specifically, it studies how state representatives frame the global challenge of preventing and responding to mass atrocities over time and, through this, frame the R2P as the appropriate policy response. The chapter analyzes UN speeches and interviews, outlining states’ use of six “modes of constructing” the addressed global challenge. The modes are (1) upholding urgency in reference to emerging crises, (2) upscaling issues to the global level, (3) censuring and condemning, (4) bundling norm agendas, (5) conceptualizing and repeating norm content, and (6) finding (new) institutional homes. Throughout, the chapter discusses and illustrates those modes and their respective empirical relevance.