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Report of the Secretary-General on the responsibility to protect to be discussed at the General Assembly on August 9, 2010
The Report of the United Nations Secretary-General on the “ early warning, assessment and the responsibility to protect” (A/64/864) was issued for discussion in the 64th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations. The report was prepared in order to update Member States on certain aspects of the responsibility to protect, pursuant to General Assembly resolution 63/308, in which the Assembly confirmed its intention “to continue its consideration of the responsibility to protect” as called for in the 2005 World Summit Outcome. It identifies the gaps in the Organization’s capacity on genocide prevention, especially in functions of information-gathering, assessment, and early warning. In response to these gaps, the report states that the United Nations must act as one in the flow and assessment of information, as well as in the operational work those assessments help to shape. Other than the early warning mechanism on the prevention of genocide, the existing mechanisms for gathering and analysing information for the purpose of early warning must view that information through the lens of the responsibility to protect; and, there should be assessment tools and capacity to ensure both efficiency and system-wide coherence in policymaking and the development of an early and flexible response tailored to the evolving needs of each situation. Finally, the report elaborates on the next steps to better realize the concept of the responsibility to protect, including with respect to the responsibilities of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, Francis M. Deng, and the Special Adviser responsible for the conceptual, political and institutional development of the responsibility to protect, Edward C. Luck.
The report will be discussed at an informal interactive dialogue of the General Assembly from 10am on August 9, 2010 at Conference Room 4, North Lawn Building of the UN Secretariat. Please note that seating is limited, and visitors in need of a guest pass should RSVP to Rachel Stein-Holmes (stein-holmes@un.org). Details of the programme and the panelists will be provided shortly.