Lucas de Belmont

Profile

I have an academic background in International Relations and International Humanitarian Action. I hold a BA in International Relations from the Federal University of Paraíba (Brazil) and a MA in International Humanitarian Action from the University of Warsaw (Poland) and the University of Deusto (Spain), which are part of the Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s Degree Programme in International Humanitarian Action organized by the Network on Humanitarian Action (NOHA). Both as an undergraduate and graduate student, I developed a research interest in the discussions on humanitarian intervention and R2P, after participating in a summer course at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, in 2014. For this reason, both of my theses were focused on analysing the contributions made the Global South to the debate around norms of protection, such as R2P and Protection of Civilians, looking specifically at the positions taken by China, India, Brazil and South Africa on the case of the UNSC-authorized NATO intervention in Libya.

I have had the opportunity to apply my theoretical expertise on protection in practice. In 2018, I joined the European Commission Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), where I assisted the team responsible for the humanitarian assistance to the people in need in Syria. In 2019, I was part of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, a NY-based organization focused on R2P-related advocacy. Finally, in 2020/21, I worked at the UN Office of the Assistant Secretary-General for Rule of Law and Security Institutions (Department of Peace Operations), at their Policy and Operational Support Team.

Research interests

My thesis, titled ‘The International Responsibility to Protect: An Effective Protection of Indigenous Peoples in the Brazilian Amazon’, aims to examine the possible effective measures that should be taken by the international community (i.e. states, regional and international organizations and courts) in order to protect the indigenous peoples who live in the Brazilian Amazon from atrocity risks and crimes committed against them by state and non-state actors, in light of the manifest failure of the Brazilian state to protect those communities.

Qualifications

• MA International Humanitarian Action
• BA International Relations

Research groups and institutes

• European Centre for Responsibility to Protect