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The UN resolution that authorized military force to protect civilians from attacks by Muammar Gaddafi’s troops has made history. For the first time, the UN Security Council authorized measures specifically to protect civilians under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which means they are militarily enforceable. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the decision "historic."

The council resolution [pdf] "affirms, clearly and unequivocally, the international community’s determination to fulfill its responsibility to protect civilians from violence perpetrated on them by their own government. The resolution authorizes the use of all necessary measures, including a no-fly zone to prevent further casualties and loss of innocent lives."

"Ten years ago, the world probably would not even have considered such a resolution," said Edward Luck, UN Special Advisor on the Responsibility to Protect. "Today, the principle of human protection and responsibility to protect are so strong that even governments traditionally worried about sovereignty did not want to stand in the way of forceful council action."

Luck pointed out that protection of civilians has been included in many UN resolutions. What makes the resolution on Libya historic is that "this is the first time that the council has taken Chapter 7 enforcement measures specifically to ensure the responsibility to protect," he said. "This authorizes a much greater use of coercive force if necessary."

Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan first raised the issue at the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly in 1999, telling ministers that the main challenge facing the United Nations in the 21st century was its role in protecting civilians. He called for “humanitarian intervention” to protect civilians in strife-torn regions -- a proposal that China and other countries rejected.

Many countries argued that human rights were an internal affair and any intervention would violate national sovereignty. Six years later, however, Annan finally succeeded. World leaders attending a UN summit in 2005 agreed that governments had a collective responsibility to protect people from genocide, war crimes, and ethnic cleansing.

Passage of the Security Council resolution on Libya marked "a significant advance of the rule of law in maintaining international peace," according to William Pace, Executive Director of the World Federalist Movement. The group hosts a coalition of non-governmental organizations working to implement the agreement on the responsibility to protect.

Mr Pace noted that the resolution came on top of an earlier resolution imposing sanctions on Gaddafi’s regime and referring Libya to the International Criminal Court for possible crimes against humanity. "It offers hope to all who are trying to resist dictators who have committed these crimes with impunity for centuries, and very often against their own people," he said.