UN special adviser criticizes global inaction on 'atrocity crime' prevention

By Merve Aydogan

HAMILTON, Canada (AA) - The UN on Monday highlighted the persistent global failure to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.

UN Special Adviser on Responsibility to Protect Mo Bleeker referred to the pledges made during the 2005 World Summit, where the UN General Assembly acknowledged the responsibility of each state to protect its populations from atrocity crimes.

"It was seen as a promise on the part of the member states of the United Nations that they would make every effort to prevent such crimes and to protect their own populations from these atrocities. But yet it is apparent that the promise of halting atrocity crimes remained largely unfulfilled," she told a UN General Assembly session on "The responsibility to protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity."

Noting the global community's failure to act on early warnings of atrocity risks, Bleeker said: "All too often we react to early warnings about the risk of atrocity crimes with indifference or denial. We do not take timely decisions to prevent and halt atrocities, or we are shocked into inaction."

She also criticized the ongoing violations and abuses of international humanitarian and human rights laws by both state and non-state actors.

Emphasizing the challenges faced by the UN Security Council due to the lack of unanimity among its permanent members, she said, "lack of unanimity by permanent members of the council has, at times, prevented it from exercising its duty to maintain international peace and security as such moments occur more often in recent memory."

Despite the challenges, Bleeker underscored the enduring significance of the Responsibility to Protect principle, asserting: "The 'Responsibility to Protect (R2P)' expresses our deepest commitment, on a collective level, to protect humanity from atrocities everywhere in the world."

The R2P is a global political commitment endorsed in 2005 by all UN member states to help prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity.