Slovenia, 2012

At the outset, let me

congratulate His Excellency Mr. Vuk Jeremić, President

of the General Assembly at its sixty-seventh session, on

his election and wish him success in discharging his

duties. It is my honour to pay tribute to the Secretary-

General, His Excellency Mr. Ban Ki-moon, for his able

leadership and tireless efforts in guiding the United

Nations in these demanding times.

The theme of this session of the General Assembly

is “Bringing about adjustment or settlement of

international disputes or situations by peaceful means”.

We had an opportunity to listen to the speakers at the

opening of the session, who stressed the importance of

preventing violence and the responsibility of all Member

States, their leaders and international organizations to take any action they can to prevent and raise awareness

of such horrible events.

Among other issues of global concern, I would like

to draw the Assembly’s attention to the horrific scenes

in Syria. A civil war has been dragging on there for

many months. Efforts at mediation unfortunately have

failed. It shocks our conscience that we have been unable

to stop the bloodshed. Sadly, we have not succeeded in

protecting civilians. In my view, the situation is critical.

It speaks to the urgent need to consider strengthening

the preventive capacities of the United Nations, its

States Members and regional organizations.

Concerted efforts to avert mass atrocities are

needed. Last year we celebrated the sixtieth anniversary

of the entry into force of the Convention on the

Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The Convention was the result of the tireless efforts of

Mr. Raphael Lemkin, a Polish lawyer. He stalked the

halls of the United Nations every day until December

1948, when the General Assembly finally adopted the

Convention. Afterwards he continued his work, and his

endeavours paid off in 1951, when the Convention came

into force.

We then waited half a century to see the first

conviction of an individual for the crime of genocide.

The establishment of the International Tribunals for

the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda in the 1990s was

followed by the historic creation of the permanent

International Criminal Court. That was another

milestone in the humanization of international relations.

A further encouraging development is that the United

Nations system has improved its internal coordination

of activities related to the prevention of genocide. The

Offices of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of

Genocide and Mass Atrocities and the Special Adviser

on the Responsibility to Protect were established at that

time. The Human Rights Council has helped to promote

the culture of prevention.

Over the past months, the Syrian tragedy has

increased awareness of our responsibility to prevent

and stop mass atrocities. United States President

Barack Obama has established a promising atrocities

prevention board and, in his remarks at the United

States Holocaust Memorial Museum in April, made the

point that national sovereignty was never a licence to

slaughter your people. I hope we all share his belief that

preventing genocide is an achievable goal. Secretary-

General Ban Ki-moon urged in his speech at the opening of this session that we should give the responsibility to

protect concept a tangible meaning.

To my regret, however, we have not yet achieved

a common understanding on the modalities involved.

We should therefore focus and strengthen our dialogue

to that end. There is room for improving the modes

of collaboration between the national, regional and

international levels.

It will be recalled that after the Second World War

more than 80 countries witnessed mass atrocities. At

least 53 million innocent lives were lost. Behind those

numbers were real men and women made of f lesh and

blood, and also children. They had futures but were

not allowed to live. Behind those numbers there are

still traumatized families and the distorted creative

potential of the affected societies. Bearing that in mind,

we should be able to set at least basic limits on human

behaviour and stop mass atrocities.

I therefore urge the States Members of the United

Nations, the members of the regional and subregional

organizations and the United Nations system to develop

a new strategy to prevent genocide and other mass

atrocities. Moreover, an intergovernmental forum of

like-minded countries should be formed to propose a

United Nations resolution that would set a clear mandate

for the preparation and adoption of an appropriate legal

mechanism — a legal mechanism that would provide

the responsibility to protect concept with new tools, a

legal mechanism that would enforce crime prevention,

a mechanism to facilitate a more rapid and effective

response to acts of genocide and other mass atrocities.

Slovenia stands ready to start a dialogue to that

end. We are going to convene the first meeting in

the following months. I am glad that we have already

enlisted substantial support for the initiative during

this Assembly session. The initiative originates from

international civil society. The Institute for Cultural

Diplomacy in Berlin has collected many thousands

of supporters among international non-governmental

organizations, lawyers, students, journalists and other

individuals. Support is on the increase, and this is

not just one isolated initiative. There are many others

across the globe.

We should, of course, also enhance our

collaboration with a view to the prosecution of alleged

perpetrators of genocide and mass atrocities, including

individual States. Effective prosecution undoubtedly

has a deterrent effect and contributes substantially to a culture of prevention. Moreover, a genuine culture of

prevention needs to be developed globally. We should

improve our understanding of the warning signs, which

should trigger early action.

These days we witness numerous acts of violence

against diplomatic and consular missions in one part

of our world. I strongly condemn such violent acts.

They can never be justified. Freedom of speech is

fundamental in a democracy, and a violent response

has never been able to silence it. Only by strengthening

intercultural dialogue can we diminish the potential

for conflict. Only mutual respect can contribute to

maintaining peace and security.

Mr. Prosor (Israel), Vice-President, took the Chair.

It was in 1946 that Raphael Lemkin asserted that

our whole heritage is a product of the contributions

of all nations. Each and every nation and the United

Nations as a whole have an enormous responsibility,

and also an opportunity, to prevent future atrocities.

We cannot escape our history but let us learn from it.

I fully believe that we do not want the mistakes of

yesterday to be repeated tomorrow. We took over the

responsibility for the world from our fathers and have

an enormous responsibility to make it a better place

for our children. I therefore invite all here to do so by

joining in our efforts for a world free from genocide.