UN is waging new “Rights Up Front” strategy in Africa

20 December 2013 While the UN continues to talk about the bloody war in Syria and the ongoing conflict in the Central African Republic (CAR), failing to stop genocide in Rwanda 1994, and Srebrenica in 1995, is still hounting the World body, but the United Nations are considering new preventive strategy called “Rights up Front” to prevent possible further massive abuse of human rights, Deputy Secretary General Jan Eliasson told reporters on Thursday in New York. - Srebrenica and Rwanda’s experience “Unfortunately, we have seen tens of thousands of people killed since Srebrenica and in Rwanda. In several situations we have seen millions of people displaced because of atrocities or risks of mass atrocities since then,” Eliasson reminded UN reporters. He offered the basic bacground for the new UN preventive action initiative.  Eliasson announced a six-point plan with training and mentoring UN staff for further promotion of human rights; providing member states with the full information needed to respond to human rights violations and pushing for higher sensitivity within the UN personnel globally where there is a risk of masive human rights abuses. All this was an “effort to react more systematically when we see human rights violations that could risk turning into mass atrocities.”  In addition UN has prepared a two and a half page summary of “Rights up Front” intiative. The plan is based on the UN Charter, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, while the UN General Assembly resolution from September 2005 -- the “Responsibility to protect” (R2P) also serves as a diplomatic backing for consideration, although it has never been fully implemented yet. Russia and China continue to question the R2P - stating that it is a document that allows interfering in internal affairs of the state. - UN discussion continues On Tuesday – the 17th – UN Deputy Secretary General had a meeting with more than 70 representatives of UN member states to explore this new initiative. Eliasson said he and his team were very much encouraged by the reaction from UN member states “on giving human rights this role in terms of early warning.” He did not mention though – what were the initial reactions on Russia and China on “Rights up Front” initiative. Eliasson told reporters -- UN is now to pursue the implementation of “these ideas” and then be prepared to report to the member states and other interested, including civil society and again to the media. UN said it set up an inter-departmental and inter-agency as a working group to deal with this initiative. Presenting the additional details of what is in the core of the new UN initiative, Eliasson said the most important is - to make human rights awareness and knowledge permeate the UN system.  He reminded that back in 2005 the UN adopted the formula that “there is no peace without development, there is no development without peace,” but somehow the nexus of human rights was omitted. It is now the time for UN to correct that omission. - Shocking history of mistakes  “Well, if that is the case, then we have to also bring in that human rights dimension into both the work on peace and security and development,” Eliasson noted.  While the intiative must be seen in the light of the peace, security and development - the human rights ought to play central role to it.  Eliasson also pointed that, if one analyse, as UN has done, conflicts in the last 50 years, one would find “to a shocking and surprising degree” that all those conflicts practically always start with human rights violations.  Thus, the international community should ask itself, “why shouldn’t we then be more firm and react at that stage when the human rights violations risk becoming mass atrocities,” Eliasson posed this still current dilemma. He reminded also that the human rights violations were at the beginning of all conflicts that turned into mass atrocities and lead up to major operations on UN side – “political or peacekeeping.” “The need for early action, and the crucial role of responding early to human rights violations, is at the heart of the ‘Rights up Front’ initiative,” Deputy Secretary General Eliasson also said. - African context Putting everything in to the context of current African conflicts, Mr. Eliaason said -- UN worked in the last months to bring in this element of “Rights up Front” in the Central African Republic, where -- the situation remains “very fluid and fragile.”  “We hope very much that everybody will now do what they can to prevent the atrocities that already are occurring to become mass atrocities,” Eliasson appealed again. 20 December 2013

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