NEW YORK JUNE 27 – The principle of a shared responsibility to protect populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes should continue to inspire our action today, while we face a general erosion of the respect for international law, the Permanent Representative of Italy to the UN, Ambassador Mariangela Zappia, said at the Plenary Meeting of the General Assembly on R2P and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. “The Security Council has a clear responsibility in this respect”, added the Ambassador.
The Responsibility to Protect (R2P or RtoP) is a global political commitment which was endorsed by all member states of the United Nations at the 2005 World Summit in order to address its four key concerns to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. R2P stipulates three pillars of responsibility. Pillar One: Every state has the Responsibility to Protect its populations from four mass atrocity crimes: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Pillar Two: The wider international community has the responsibility to encourage and assist individual states in meeting that responsibility. Pillar Three: If a state is manifestly failing to protect its populations, the international community must be prepared to take appropriate collective action, in a timely and decisive manner and in accordance with the UN Charter. The Security Council has invoked R2P in more than 65 resolutions since 2006. The Human Rights Council has also invoked R2P in 30 resolutions.
Prevention and early action are of the essence.
“We need to implement this principle by strengthening of the rule of law and ensuring accountability for past atrocity crimes by supporting the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 16 (peace, justice and strong institutions), but also by securing proper livelihoods, as the economic risk is one of the main triggers for atrocity crimes”, said Ambassador Zappia.
Addressing the root causes of such crimes is a big part of the solution: “This is why we see great merit in a cross-cutting strategy linking the different UN agendas, from the protection of civilians to women peace and security, from the sustainable development to the wider human rights agenda and peacekeeping”, said the Italian Ambassador.
Detecting early signals of potential disruption.
Atrocity crimes do not happen overnight but they are carefully prepared and organized. “Hate speech plays a big role in the build up to atrocity crimes. We need to strengthen the civil society and recognize the paramount role of women in building pluralistic, inclusive societies that provide the best antibodies against mass atrocities. Protecting women is a categorical imperative, especially when sexual and gender based violence are increasingly used as a deliberate political strategy by state and non-state perpetrators”, said Zappia.
In closing, the Ambassador assured that Italy continues to do its part as a strong supporter of R2P on the Security Council and as former chairs of the R2P Group of friends. “As the top Western Troop-Contributing Country for peacekeeping operations, we believe that effective protection of civilians requires properly trained troops, adequate equipment, and a strong political commitment. Since 2005, through the Center of Excellence for Stability Police Units in Vicenza, COESPU, we have trained more than 10,000 units of police personnel, many of whom are deployed in peacekeeping operations in Africa”.
Italy also joined the Circle of Leadership against Sexual Exploitation and Abuse launched by the Secretary-General, and is the largest contributor to the UN Trust Fund of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse. Italy has appointed a R2P national Focal Point and encourages all Member States and Regional Organizations to do the same, while, at the end of May, it hosted a Conference in Rome on SDG 16 in preparation of the coming High Level Political Forum and was pleased to welcome the Special Envoy, who stressed the fundamental link between SDG16 and the R2P. (@OnuItalia)
