On 23 May the Permanent Mission of Ireland to the United Nations and the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, co-hosted the Annual Evans-Sahnoun Lecture on the Responsibility to Protect. This year’s lecture featured a keynote address by Ms. Pramila Patten, UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, focused on the linkages between Women, Peace and Security and the Responsibility to Protect. The event also included remarks from the Permanent Representative of Ireland to the UN, Ambassador Geraldine Byrne Nason; Former Australian government minister and Co-chair of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Professor the Hon. Gareth Evans; Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, Ms. Savita Pawnday; Burmese human rights activist, Founder and Executive Director of the Women’s Peace Network, Ms. Wai Wai Nu; and Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the International Peace Institute, Mr. Adam Lupel.

The Evans-Sahnoun Lecture was initiated by the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect in 2010 to honor the contributions made by former Australian government minister, Gareth Evans, and renowned Algerian diplomat, Mohamed Sahnoun, to the development of the Responsibility to Protect principle. The lecture series provides an opportunity for eminent public figures to share their experiences in the field of mass atrocity prevention, international diplomacy, justice and human rights.