GEORGE NEWS - A great honour was bestowed on a former pupil of York High, Karen Smith, when United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres appointed her as Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect. She succeeds Ivan Simonovic.

It has been a long road to working for the UN. She was born in Johannesburg. When she was six years old her family moved to George, where she attended two years of school. The family next lived in Austria for seven years, where she attended the American International School. When her family retired to George she attended York High from 1989 to 1992 and matriculated there. 

In the years after school, she acquired a doctoral degree in Political Science at the University of Stellenbosch. Over the years she was a lecturer at the universities of Western Cape, Stellenbosch and later at the University of Cape Town. At the beginning of 2017 she accepted a position as lecturer at the Leiden University. Her appointment as special adviser to the UN secretary-general came in December 2018.

Responsibility to protect
In an e-mail interview with George Herald, Smith said the post of "Responsibility to Protect" came about after the genocides in Rwanda and Srebenica in the 1990s. In the face of the lack of international action, the international community reached consensus on the principle at the World Summit held at the UN in 2005, coinciding with the UN's 60th anniversary. 

The "R2P", as it has become known, refers to the idea that all states have the responsibility to protect their own citizens from the worst kinds of atrocity crimes (genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic cleansing), and when they are unwilling or unable to do so, the international community has the responsibility to assist them and finally to take necessary measures to ensure that human lives are protected.

This was a major shift in international relations and international law, which was heavily based on the idea of state sovereignty. This dictated that, based on the principle of non-interference, states should not interfere in the internal affairs of another states. 

Unfortunately, while there was agreement among all member states of the UN on paper, the implementation of the principle continues to present challenges. "We see this with a number of current situations of concern around the world, where the international community seems to be paralysed in terms of acting to save lives," said Smith. 

"As adviser on R2P, my role is to further the conceptual development of the principle, focusing on its operationalisation, and also work towards building greater political consensus around the idea."

As it is a part-time position, Smith continues to be based in the Netherlands, where she holds a full-time academic position. "It does, however, entail quite a bit of travel, both to the UN headquarters in New York, where my office is based, as well as to other international and regional organisations, and different states." she said.

According to Smith the world is currently experiencing enormous upheaval in the international system. This stems from the uncertainty caused by major shifts in the global architecture and urgent global governance issues such as climate change. At the same time, there seems to be a retreat from multilateralism and human rights, which increases the challenge of addressing global conflict and protecting ordinary people from human rights violations and atrocity crimes.

Karen Smith's doctoral thesis. Photo: Eugene Gunning

She said that South Africa used to be a leading African voice in the international arena, and was respected for its principled foreign policy that promoted respect for human rights and changes towards a more just international system. But, due to a lack of political leadership and seemingly intractable domestic challenges, South Africa has in recent years lost its clout in international relations. 

"I think this is a lost opportunity that can be regained under the right leadership and strategic thinking."

Matty Smith holds a photograph of her daughter Karen receiving her doctor's degree in political science from the University of Stellenbosch. Photo: Eugene Gunning 

Proud
Smith said she misses the good weather and wine of South Africa. Her mother and sister still live in George. She loves travel and photography.

Her mother, Matty, is very proud of her widely travelled daughter, and said that Karen's late father Gert would also have been proud. Jimmy Power, marketing executive of York High, said the school has taken notice of what Karen has achieved. "We are very proud and have congratulated her."

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