Ensure implementation of 'responsibility to protect': India to

India has asked the international community to find ways to address the gaps that exist between national sovereignty and responsibility of countries to prevent genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
"It has been India?s consistent position that the responsibility to protect its population is one of the foremost responsibilities of every State. The right to life is one of the rights from which no derogation is permitted under any circumstance," First Secretary in India?s Permanent Mission to the UN Sandeep Kumar Bayyapu said at an interactive dialogue in the UN General Assembly session on Responsibility to Protect here yesterday.
He, however, noted that developments over the years have shown that there is a gap between the principle of State sovereignty and the concerns that this principle has not always been able to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing or crimes against humanity.

"Therefore, India like other members of the international community understands the need to find appropriate ways to address this gap to ensure implementation of the 'responsibility to protect' takes place in a manner that will not undermine international order," Bayyapu added.
He asserted that India believes that further discussions are required within the international community on issues like - which instruments should be used; what are the thresholds that will trigger preventive measures and who would identify them; who should be empowered to implement Responsibility to Protect, as the four crimes mentioned in the World Summit outcome document may or may not impact global peace and security in every circumstance.

UN Secretary-General Ant?nio Guterres also called for concrete action to protect the vulnerable and to reverse such negative trends as he highlighted increased atrocity crimes ? genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity ? in many parts of the world.

"All of us are well aware of the grim human reality that lies behind the words, 'war crimes', 'crimes against humanity', 'ethnic cleansing', and 'genocide'," Guterres said at the session.
"It is time to move beyond the conceptual debate towards improved protection of people from atrocity crimes."
Referring to his report on responsibility to protect, the UN chief also stressed that the Organisation must give far greater attention to address the challenges before they spiral out of control.

In particular, he underscored the need for practical steps, noting that his report includes options that can be taken in a relatively short time, without major operational or institutional requirements.
He also urged the Human Rights Council (the highest UN intergovernmental forum on human rights) as well as the Security Council to further strengthen their capacity to address the risks of atrocity crimes and other violations of the responsibility to protect, and called for improving the use of all three UN pillars ? peace and security, development, and human rights ? for better early warning and prevention, as envisaged in the Human Rights Up Front action plan.

Noting that the responsibly to protect agenda generates some discomfort for a number of UN Member States, with the primary concern that it will be used to "impose" international approaches that may harm national sovereignty, Guterres said that the success of the UN implementing its mandates depended on national actors being able to deliver on their sovereign responsibilities.