Abstract
This master’s thesis explores whether R2P, the responsibility to protect, can protect Pakistani refugees in Afghanistan. A special emphasis is put on the colonial border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Durand Line, which is internationally recognized, but not by Afghanistan then or the Taliban now. The thesis’ underlying theory by Boaventura de Sousa Santos makes use of a concept called “the abyss” to describe and to understand the Pakistanis’ situation in the Afghan Gulan Camp. Since the situation is characterized by the absence of human rights, I suggest R2P, an “emerging” or “contested” proto-legal, social, and moral norm as a framework to tackle the issue. Therefore, I utilize the “Framework of Analysis for Atrocity Crimes”, provided by the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect. I demonstrate the existence of two “Risk Factors” from the Framework of Analysis in the geographical space between Afghanistan and Pakistan, namely “Existence of Non-international or International Armed Conflict” and “Humanitarian Crisis”. The former is addressed by way of legal reasoning (international humanitarian law), the latter by way of interview (narrative approach). In essence, the paper argues that it is possible to apply R2P to borderlands in inter-state dispute and armed conflict. However, R2P might not be the most suitable normative framework to protect the Pakistani refugees in Afghanistan directly.