392 CHAPTER TEn ■ Human Riht
neighboring countries of Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq. Each country has handled
the situation differently— Turkey provides temporary protection for about 30 percent
of the displaced in refugee camps. But Turkey, although a signatory to the Conven-
tion on Refugees, does not permit those from outside of Eu rope to apply for asylum.
While Jordan and Lebanon are not signatories, they have allowed Syrians entrance but
prevented them from working. Unable to work, the people have run out of patience
and money and both Lebanon and Jordan are at a breaking point. This explains the
surge of refugees making the journey to Eu rope.
Since 2015, the refugees and IDPs have risked dangerous sea voyages, paying traffickers
to navigate the route, and walking the roads north through the Balkans. Their hope is
that they will be granted refugee status and perhaps permanent asylum in an EU mem-
ber state, mainly the richer and more welcoming states of Germany and Sweden. But,
as Chapter 7 describes, this situation has led to a crisis in the EU itself. The Eu ro pean
Commission proposes compulsory relocation of persons across vari ous member states,
but most states have refused to consider taking in sufficient numbers or have only taken
in certain categories (primarily Christians). The significant numbers, their images pro-
jected on the 24- hour news cycle, their desperate hopes of a better life, despite the lack
of resources, have made this a humanitarian emergency of unpre ce dented proportions.
The resources and administrative capacity of even the richer countries are stretched thin
and domestic backlash is mounting. Yet their obligation under the international human
rights regime is to offer temporary protection, until refugees’ individual cases are heard.
And they cannot be repatriated as long as the wars continue and persecution is feared.
The refugee crisis can be considered a key test of the R2P norm. The R2P norm not
only obligates states to take coercive action against state offenders, but it also obligates
states to protect people by providing asylum and refuge. As Alex Bellamy notes, “The
granting of safe passage and asylum is without doubt one of the most effective, if not
the most effective, ways of directly protecting people from atrocity crimes.”^21 But the
least developed states, where 86 percent of the world’s refugees are housed, do not have
adequate financial resources and many Western developed states have national security
concerns.
Contending Perspectives on esponding
to uman ights mbuses
What explains the lack of decisive action in responding to human rights abuses? Real-
ists say that states have determined that it is not in their national interest to respond,
since human rights abuses do not usually threaten a state’s own security. If genocide
committed by one state does jeopardize another state’s national interest, including
intruding on its core values, then it could act. As former U.S. national security adviser