It is not a mere coincident that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was adopted just one day before the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Together with the UN Charter, these two instruments provided the modern foundation for the international system. They underscored the international community’s resolve to close the darkest chapter of the 20th century, and prevent new atrocities and future acts of genocide. However, as we know only too well, crimes against humanity, including in some cases acts of genocide, such as those committed in Cambodia, Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia bear witness to the international community’s terrible failure to learn from the past.

A comprehensive approach to prevention and early warning must focus on detecting and removing the deep-seated socio-economic, political, ethnic, environmental or structural causes of violence, and this calls for both short- and long term diplomatic, humanitarian, developmental, and human rights action. In the last years there has been a growing recognition in the United Nations system of the importance of human rights monitoring and analysis as part of a comprehensive early warning mechanism. There is also a realization that efforts to combat impunity for gross human rights violations must go hand in hand with an effective prevention strategy, because serious human rights violations, if left unaddressed, can lead to further violence and escalate into war, and ultimately even genocide.

At the same time, we must ensure that the resources and capacities available are put into full and effective use: the failure to pay attention to and act on signs of early warning cannot be blamed on a lack of information. To highlight this point, in his report on the Prevention of Armed Conflict to the General Assembly in 2001, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, called on the Security Council and the General Assembly to make full use of information and analysis emanating from United Nations human rights mechanisms and bodies in their efforts to prevent armed conflict. Over the last 50 years, the UN human rights programme has developed a number of mechanisms as part of a comprehensive early warning system. Through their monitoring and reporting activities, the country specific and thematic special procedures mechanisms of the Commission on Human Rights are a key element in this system. The UN human rights treaty bodies, with their review of States parties’ reports, also provide continued monitoring of what States do to protect and promote the human rights of people under their jurisdiction. The example of Rwanda is of particular importance in this context: in his report to the Commission on Human Rights of August 1993, prepared after a field mission to Rwanda, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Mr. Bacre Ndiaye, signalled that the situation in that country had deteriorated to the extent that it could lead to the outbreak of genocide, and called for urgent international action to prevent this from happening. Only a few months later, the Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) made a similar recommendation. Sadly, these calls were not given due attention.

To complement the special procedures and the treaty bodies, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has in a number of cases deployed human rights field officers to areas facing particular difficulties, such as Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi, Angola, the former Yugoslavia, and Colombia, to mention a few. Information and analysis generated by these field offices and UN human rights mechanisms are continuously shared with other departments and organs of the UN, including the Security Council and the General Assembly. Information is also publicized through reports and statements by the High Commissioner for Human Rights. In this connection it is worth noting that in July 2002, the High Commissioner for Human Rights briefed the Security Council on the deteriorating situation in Kisangani, eastern DRC, based on a mission carried out by the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Moreover, in the last years, a number of special procedures have been invited under the so-called “Arria-formula” to brief the Security Council on their findings, e.g. the Special Rapporteurs on the former Yugoslavia, DRC, Burundi, and on violence against women, its causes and consequences. OHCHR is now also represented in all of the executive committees of the UN, including the Executive Committee on Peace and Security, which gives the High Commissioner the opportunity to place urgent human rights issues at the centre of UN policy making. The recognition of human rights as a key element in a evolving broader security concept is also reflected by the fact that UN peace missions now routinely include a separate unit specifically tasked with human rights monitoring, protection and promotion.

However, at the same time it is clear that none of these efforts will be of much preventive value unless Governments of Member States are ready to act on signs of early warning, recognizing that systematic human rights violations often signal a further escalation of violence and conflict. When Kofi Annan addressed the Commission on Human Rights in March 1998, he called for the 21st century to be declared “the age of prevention of human rights violations”. For this vision to become true, the United Nations will depend on its Member States to allow the protection and promotion of human rights to assume the place it deserves on the international agenda.