INTRODUCTION

States must not only abstain from violating the rights of individuals under their jurisdiction, by ensuring that State agents do not commit such infringements. They must also intervene where acts committed by private parties, whether individuals, groups or legal persons, threaten to violate those rights. Where there are indications that an individual is at risk of having his/her rights violated, or where a situation exists which gives rise to such a risk, preventive measures must be taken, in order to ensure, to the fullest extent possible, that these risks do not materialize. And when the measures they adopt fail, and violations are caused by the conduct of non-State actors, State authorities may not remain passive: they are under an obligation to provide effective remedies to the individual whose rights have been violated, in order to ensure that he/she will be compensated, and in certain cases, that the wrongdoer will be sanctioned through administrative or criminal penalties.

This chapter is focused on this obligation to protect. This obligation arises where the State is confronted with acts of private actors which may lead to human rights being violated: an obligation is then imposed on the State to prevent such violations from occuring, and to provide remedies where the preventive measures have failed. But it seems necessary, as a preliminary matter, carefully to circumscribe the notion of the obligation to protect, in order to avoid confusing it with situations which present a superficial similarity to those that give rise to such an obligation.