By Holy See Mission
Intervention
byH.E. Archbishop Celestino
MiglioreHead of the Delegation of the
Holy Seeto the IV Stockholm International
Forum onPreventing
Genocide: Threats and ResponsibilitiesStockholm,
26-28 January 2004Mr. Chairman,On behalf of my
Delegation, I wish to congratulate sincerely the Swedish Government
for
organizing this Forum on preventing genocide. The Forum's emphasis on
prevention and on identifying threats of genocide makes it a most
fitting
conclusion to the three previous ones: on the Holocaust, on Combating
Intolerance, and on Truth, Justice and Reconciliation.Humanity has
seen world wars, genocides, mass murders, and ethnic cleansings.
However,
among all forms of large-scale violence, genocide sets itself apart by
the
evil motivation behind it, namely, its specific intent to destroy, in
whole or
in part, a nation, a race, an ethnic or religious group, a defenseless
or
vulnerable group of human beings, simply for being such. Indeed,
genocide
literally means to kill a race or a tribe.Among the many
aspects of the question, my Delegation wishes to highlight three
specific
points:- first, the
need to implement existing legal instruments against genocide;- second, the
central role of the international, regional and sub-regional
Organizations;- third, the
commitment to education and vigilance against genocide.1. First,
the need to implement instruments and structures against genocide.
In
response to the tragic cases of genocides of the last century, the
international community developed a series of legal instruments and
juridical
structures - from the Convention for the Prevention and the Punishment
of the
Crime of Genocide, approved by the United Nations in 1948, to the
creation of
the International Criminal Court, approved in Rome in 1998.However, facts
attest that the existence of these instruments and structures have not
prevented new genocides from happening. Something must have gone
wrong, and
the international community is duty-bound to examine why they failed;
to
determine whether the failure was due to instruments and structures
which have
become wanting in the face of evolving criminal strategies, or due to a
lack
of political will to implement them, or due to interests overriding
the
survival of a nation or a group, or due to all these factors combined.
This
task is all the more compelling if we consider that, since genocide's
intent
to destroy a nation or a group implies coordinated planning and
long-term
strategy, signs of an impending threat could hardly escape notice of
an
attentive international community.2. Second,
the role of the international organizations. The United Nations
and other
international organizations have the task to muster international
resolve to
implement, whenever and wherever is necessary, the juridical
instruments and
structures. They are the privileged fora in the search for refocusing
these
instruments and structures and, if need be, in creating new ones, to
make them
more responsive to threats of genocide or other grave violations of
human
rights.In this regard,
the United Nations remains the central forum for global international
rule
making. In the last decades, a substantial body of international
treaties was
negotiated in the UN. This work still continues on this very day. And
we
observe that a gradually expanding corpus of international law imposes
obligations on member States. However, not all member States, in
particular
developing countries, have the technical capacity to cope with all the
international obligations. There is a growing rift between the
development of
international law and the capability of countries to apply it. Here
implementation is a key word in the challenges ahead of us in
international
law; it stresses the importance of juridical, technical assistance to
developing countries.3. The third
and final point my delegation wishes to underscore is our duty to
educate
individuals and communities, not only on the horrors of genocide,
not only
to oppose it, but above all, to prevent it from occurring again.
A lot
has already been learned about genocide. But educating all about its
evil is a
perennial and ever-timely duty incumbent upon us all. It was in this
sense,
for example, the U.N. General Assembly unanimously adopted resolution
58/234,
on 23 December 2003, designating 7 of April this year as the
International Day
of Reflection to commemorate the victims of the 1994 genocide in
Rwanda.Genocide
remains, unfortunately, a constant menace in some regions of the
world, where
its causes and telltale signs may not be so hard to identify. Genocide
is
latent in places where eliminating the other is considered a "fast
solution"
to drawn-out rivalries and unresolved conflicts; where blatantly
unjust
relations between groups are ideologically justified; where under the
surface
of apparent order are embers of hatred still burning for lack of
mutual
forgiveness and reconciliation; where acceptance of past mistakes and a
"purification of memory" are obstructed by the fear to confront the
historical
reality. These are not only identifiable warnings of an impending
threat of
genocide: if I may add, these are also identifiable factors in the
breeding
grounds of terrorism.Mr. Chairman,The world has
become too interconnected to plead ignorance on what is happening on
the other
side of the global village and, to a large extent, the legal
instruments and
juridical structures are already in place to nip genocides in the bud.
What we
need most now is a greater and more courageous will to implement
them.Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
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