The UN deputy Secretary General, Jan Eliasson, speaking at a Holocaust memorial event on Wednesday, said it is important to learn from the past in order to prevent future mass atrocities, stating that "genocide can only happen when we ignore the warning signs – and are unwilling to take action.”
"It is important that we examine why we continue to fail to prevent mass atrocities, despite lessons learned, despite knowledge of causes and drivers and despite our assurances of ‘never again," Mr Eliasson said.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Genocide, Adama Dieng also spoke at the event.
Last year, Mr Dieng, said the killing of thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka at the end of the armed conflict in 2009, was the "failure of the international community".
This "led to the killing of thousands of them [Tamils] under our eyes" he added, when asked by the journalist, Matthew Russell Lee whether the atrocities committed against the Tamil people, before, during and after May 2009, met the criteria for genocide.
The event, which marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, was held in the UN headquarters in New York.
The event was also addressed by the permanent representatives to the UN of the US, UK, Rwanda, Israel, Germany, Russia and France and Philippe Bolopion of the New-York based rights group, Human Rights Watch.
See here for Mr Eliasson's full address. Extract reproduced below:
"It is important that we examine why we continue to fail to prevent mass atrocities, despite lessons learned, despite knowledge of causes and drivers and despite our assurances of ‘never again," Mr Eliasson said.
The UN Secretary-General’s Special Advisor on Genocide, Adama Dieng also spoke at the event.
Last year, Mr Dieng, said the killing of thousands of Tamils in Sri Lanka at the end of the armed conflict in 2009, was the "failure of the international community".
This "led to the killing of thousands of them [Tamils] under our eyes" he added, when asked by the journalist, Matthew Russell Lee whether the atrocities committed against the Tamil people, before, during and after May 2009, met the criteria for genocide.
The event, which marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp, was held in the UN headquarters in New York.
The event was also addressed by the permanent representatives to the UN of the US, UK, Rwanda, Israel, Germany, Russia and France and Philippe Bolopion of the New-York based rights group, Human Rights Watch.
See here for Mr Eliasson's full address. Extract reproduced below:
"In an era of pervasive instant communication and of deepening inter-relationships in this world, we cannot say or pretend that we do not know what is happening."
"This is especially so, as we know that genocide doesn’t arise overnight. Genocide is the result of creeping processes unfolding over time, and of conditions that make them thrive. Our challenge is to stop these processes and their enabling conditions at an early stage."
"Armed conflicts often create the kind of disrupting environment that can lead to mass atrocities. We’ve seen that recently in South Sudan, Central African Republic, Iraq and elsewhere. Thus, when we prevent or resolve conflicts, we are also reducing the risk of atrocity crimes and genocide."
"But preventing genocide must mean doing far more than that. Genocide is an extreme form of perverted identity-based conflict that can happen also in peace time. It results from divisions within society that serve, in the eyes of the perpetrators, as both the cause and the justification of group violence.
Preventing genocide requires a specific lens that should guide policy development and Member States’ efforts to support diversity, tolerance and inclusion. Member States need to do more to pre-empt or address risk factors."