The eighth Informal Interactive Dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) was held in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on 6 September 2016. One regional organization (the European Union) and sixty-eight member states delivered statements on behalf of ninety-three countries regarding the report of the UN Secretary-General on Mobilizing collective action: The next decade of the responsibility to protect (A/70/999-S/2016/620). The Netherlands made a statement on behalf of 49 of the members of the cross-regional Group of Friends of the Responsibility to Protect. Four civil society organizations, including the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, also delivered statements.

While the discussion demonstrated the broad conceptual agreement on the principle of R2P, member states used the dialogue to reflect upon remaining obstacles to mobilizing collective action to prevent genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. In this context, member states expressed concern about the current global political crisis, including the more than 65 million people who have been displaced by conflict, war and persecution.

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