© Agence France-Presse
Responsibility to protect cannot be delegated: delegate.
Pakistan has told the UN General Assembly that the doctrine of responsibility to protect the international understanding to intervene and stop atrocities from taking place would remain a 'hollow concept' without addressing the historical injustices such as festering disputes and foreign occupation.
"The use of regional mechanisms or early warning systems and need for prompt response are equally important for new and old disputes/situations," Pakistani delegate Raza Bashir Tarar said in the course of the General Assembly's interactive dialogue on the responsibility to protect.
"Addressing all situations in an impartial manner is the key to achieving consensus on this concept," Tarar added.
Agreed at a summit of world leaders in 2005 and sometimes known as "R2P", the concept holds states responsible for shielding their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and related crimes against humanity and requires the international community to step in if this obligation is not met.
Intervening in the debate, the Pakistani delegate made it clear that responsibility to protect remains the primary responsibility of the state and cannot be arrogated by or delegated to other actors in defiance of the established UN charter principles of non-intervention, national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Comment: The above article is largely NATO propaganda along the lines of "history is written by the victors (or aggressors)". For a more accurate account of what has come to be called the "Bosnian war" see the articles at this link.