THE HOLOCAUST AND THE UNITED NATIONS OUTREACH PROGRAMME
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The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme<br />
to the development of new institutional capacity and spurred successful<br />
engagement in cases like Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Kenya and<br />
Kyrgyzstan.<br />
The breadth and depth of the responsibility<br />
“At the 2005 World to protect’s impact is also clear in the decisions<br />
and deliberations of international insti-<br />
Summit, Member States<br />
formally recognized tutions. The Security Council has adopted<br />
the political and moral more than thirty resolutions and presidential<br />
statements that refer to the principle,<br />
imperative to prevent<br />
and halt atrocity including recent resolutions that explicitly<br />
crimes.”<br />
welcome the work of our Office. 2 The General<br />
Assembly has held a formal debate and<br />
convened seven annual informal interactive<br />
dialogues on the subject. The Human Rights Council has adopted<br />
thirteen resolutions that feature the responsibility to protect. At the<br />
regional level, the African Commission on Human and Peoples’<br />
Rights has adopted a resolution on strengthening the responsibility<br />
to protect in Africa 3 and the European Parliament has recommended<br />
full implementation of the principle by the European Union. 4 In<br />
short, Member States and regional organizations are reaffirming the<br />
principle with increasing frequency and specificity.<br />
As Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has noted, the responsibility to<br />
protect “offers an alternative to indifference and fatalism” and represents<br />
a “milestone in transforming international concern about people<br />
facing mortal danger into meaningful response”. 5 In this article,<br />
we reflect on the elements of the responsibility to protect that have<br />
shaped its significant contribution to advancing protection from<br />
genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.<br />
Mindful of current crises and the many people that remain at<br />
elevated risk of atrocity crimes, we then highlight the urgent need to<br />
accelerate implementation of the principle and outline an ambitious<br />
but achievable agenda for the decade ahead.
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