On Friday, The Herbert and Valmae Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry partnered with The Humanities Research Centre to host ANU Chancellor and former Foreign Affairs Minister, the Hon Gareth Evans, for the Africa Week lecture. The lecture, on the topic “The Responsibility to Protect in Africa” drew on Chancellor Evans' expertise on the responsibility to protect (or "R2P") which Chancellor Evans described as “more than just an emerging norm” in international law.

The lecture, before an audience of 55 including the High Commissioners of Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, emphasized the pivotal role of a number of African states and African leaders in developing the principle of “R2P,” disproving the common assumption that leaders in the Global South are more concerned with state sovereignty than human rights protection. The lecture also noted the continuing fallout over the Western-led intervention in Libya in 2011. 

The transcript of this lecture is available from Prof. Evan's personal website.