CHANA
rO THE UNtrED NATONS

,,.,,,1:! |,1',9"; 133i i,, ",,"

P].a\., h.ck oaatna deI cry ^

STATEMENT
HIS EXCELLENCY LESLIE CHRISTIAN MR. K.
AMBASSADOR PERMANEI{T AND REPRESENTATWE OFGHANA THEUNITED TO NATIONS
ON AGENDA rTEt4S ANDt07i 44 INTEGRA|ED CN)RDIT,IATED AND TMPIEII,IEAITAq1N OFAND rcLLOW.UP THE TO OUTCOMES ME qA]OR OF UTTITED NANONS CONEREIICES AiTD THE rcONOMICSOCNL ANDREUTED FIELDS; 'UMMTT,lN rcLLOWUPTOIHE OUTCOME THE OF MILLENNIUM SUMMIT: REPORT THE SFCRTTARY.GTIITPIL OF UN (4/63/677)97H PLENARY MEETTNG NlE OF GENERAL ASSEMELY

BY

lvlr. Prcsident,

Let me from the outsetcommend you. Mr. presldent, conveninq for lhis meeting. My delegationwetcomesthe Repot A,/63/G77 th; of Secretary-Genera I whichprovides very balanced a analysis an objective and basis l4ember for States this Assembly consotidate dtatogue the of to the on way forwardin ensuringthe effectiveimplementation exercise the and of Responsibilityto Protect populations from genocide, war crlmes, crimes against humanlty ethnlccleansing and orthetrhcjtement. TheResDonsib lW to Protectis embodiedin paragraphs138. 139 and 140 of the ZOO5 Outcome Document, whichwortdteaders in y unequtvoca pledged that.we accept that responsibility will ad In accordance it,. So thtsdebate and with should not be about renegotiating the conceptwhlch has atreadvbeen negotiated and agreedin the outcome Document adoptedat the 2005 Summitgenerally regarded the targest as gathertng Heads Statsand of of Governments far. lnstead,the prlmaryfocusof our ongotng so dialogLle must be on howto gamerthe needed political and collective to act and wifl take concretemeasures the national.regionat at and intemational levets towardsthe preventlon thosefour crimes. of

Nonetheless, cannotfattto continue promotea comorehensive r,ve to and common undeBtandingof ruison the d,etre or essnaeof ihe Responsibility Protect,which partly informschana,s supportfor the to conceptand its lnherentand intrlnsicvalue, To this end, my delgaflon wlshestorecall following perttnent the observatjons madeby the SecretarvGeneral his report beforeus today: 'Thetwentiethcenturr was marr;d in by the holocaust, kilring th fletds Cambodia, of theGenocide Rwancta t; and the mass killingsIn Srebrenica, the other two under the watch of the SecurltyCounciland the United Nattonspeacekeepers.Genocide, war crimes,ethniccleanslng crimsagatnst and humanity- the brutattegacy of the twentleth cntury,speaks bitteriyandgraphicay of the pro6ound-faiiur of individual States to live up to their most basic ;nd compe ing responslbllities, well as the colteflveinadequacles international as of institutions. Thosetraglc eventsled my predecessor. Annan,andother Kofl wodd leaders ask whetherthe UnitdNationsand other internadonal to institutions shouldbe excluslvely focused the securtty stateswithout on of regard to the safety of the peoptewithin them. Coutasovereignry, the essential buildlng "blockof the nations-states andof the UniteaNatjons era itself,they queried,be usedas a shietdbehindwhichmassviotence coutd be inflidedon populations wtth impunity?"

2

FormerSecrctary-General Annan,whosercle in the adoptionof Kofi gaveth 8an the concept, Secretary-General Ki-moon citeswith approval, following rationale forthe ResponsibilatyProtect NewYorkon 20 lgarch to in the Awardfor Internatlonal 2008,whn he received f4acArthur .lustice: "In the past, when a conflict arose essentially within the borders of one country, it was more of lessaxiomatic that the people of that country have to be left to dealwith it on their own. For anyone else to get involved was consideredan intolerable interference in the domesucaffairs of a sovereign state. As far as the rest of the world is concened, the state - which meant, in practice, whoeverwas in control of the Statesat that particular moment was perceived as the sole legitimate rcprcsentative of the people in that coun y. If those in control of the state used Lt to attack other people within the country and trample on their ghts. those other people had no one to appeal to. The rest of the wo cl could look the other way and not feel responsible. Fortunately, today, Mr. Kofi Annan, further notecl, we have come to see things differently. Toclaywe see State sovereignty not as an absolute good in itself but as an instrument - albeit a very important one which has value only in so far as it is used to protect human life, to ensure respect for human cliqnity and to upholal human ghts. Sovereignty, in othe. worcls, should be seen not as a privilege but as a very heavy .esponsibility. It caonot be delinke.! from the obli?ation that every State has to prcted its people. The State was now widely understood as a servant of is people, anclnot vice-versa. Only when it is exercisedin that spiit, with due resped for the funclamentalhuman righ6 and dignity and worth of the human oerson - as Droclaimedin the Charter of the United Nations - wi sove.eignty be recognizedby allas crcdible and tegitimate."

To ensurethe effective implementation ofthe Responsjbiljty Protect to at the regional level,it is imperative that the UnitedNations moreactively supportregionalandsub-regional organizations suchas the AfricanUnion and ECOWAS the implementation legally-blndlng in of reqional instruments war crimesand crimes they haveadopted forthe prevention ofgenocide, with agalnst humanity. Based our bitter experience violentconflicts on and the Act a civilwarson the contlnent Africar Constitutive enshrined carefuI of of and delicatebalancebetweenthe DrinciDle non-interference the and principleof non-indlfference. Article4 (h) of the constitutive Act (2000) the in to confers right on the Unionto intervene a l4ember Statepursuant ofStatesandGovernment respect in a declslon ofthe AUAssembly Heads of

genoclde, crimes of gravecircumstancesr namely war and crimesagainst humanlty. Artlcle (J)furtherconfers rlghtof a l'lemberState request 4 a to intervention the Union orderto restore from 'in oeace securiw'. and (2002)establishhg African TheAU Protocol the Peace Scurity and has Councllwhich benelevated retroadlvely thestatus a provision to of of Act, the Constltutive statesthat the AU Peace Seurity and Council can to the Assembly Heads States. lntervention behalf recommend of of an on ofthe Union a Member in Statein rspect gravecircumstances. of namely genocide crimes warcrimes, and agalnst humanity, deflned relevant as In Intematlonal conventions instruments.' AUPSC and The Protocol reinforces the Constitutive by 9oin9furtherin definlng sltuatlons Act the that will tilggeranIntervention, including cases where thereare'masslve violattons of human rightsor where situation the threatens regional nelghbouring or provisions befound the ECOWAS states',Slmllar can in Protocol Relating to the l,'lechanism for Conflict Prevention,Management. Resolution, Peacekeeplng Security in instruments and and adopted countries by ofthe GreatLakes Region. TheUNandthe restof the International community mustsupport onqoing efforts the AUto lmplement by reqional instruments in the context whichthe AU hasrequested of internatlonal assistance to complement operatlonalization At Standby the of the Forces arrangemnt. Mr. Prsident. l.ly delegation belleves that in the scheme the responsibiliw of to protect, preventionmust be given top priority. as the Famers of the genocide convention. example, for obsrved in cases genocld, is that of it oftentoo lateto savethe populatlon arevictims who ofthe massacre and, therefore, urgedthat more attentionbe focused on prevention the of inciterhent genoclcte ethnlc to and cleanslng. isthusimperatlve the IJN It for to support earlywaming mechanlsms embodied the NEPAD lts Ptan in and of Action. African the Per Revlew lqechanism. APRIq whtch The to chana wasthe to voluntarily flrst subscribe. atconsolidating democracy, good aims developlng strong,vibrantand free clvll sodev and mediarespect a for human rights, ruleoflaw,aswellaspromoung the nauonalintegraiton and non-dlscrlmlnatlon. equitable dlstributlon nattonalresources of and enhancing capacity goodgovemance. our for Expedence shown has that the absence thes of standards contrlbuted nosmallmeasure the have In to clvllwarsthat haveruined manycountries emerging fromconflicts. Ghana greatimportance the perRevlew thusattaches to llechanism the Rule and of Lawandhasindicated willingness submitherselffora its peer to second

reviewas soonas possible. The UNshouldsuppot the laboration imptementation and ofthe AIJ Framework Post-Conflict for (AU Reconstrudionnd Development FPCRD) a in to promoteregionalownership peacebuildingprocesses the order of on continent.The success ofthe AUFPCRO willno doubtenhance work of the the UNPeacebuilding Commission. PBC already The is developing capacity a gatherdataoo lessons to learned countries in emerging from conflicts,The possibility strengthening eartywamingcapacity of its musr be exptored by lvlember Statesactlngin concert lrith the Secretary-Generat. suppori Ivore forearlywarning mechanisms byother reglonal organ izations suchas those adopted the AU and ECOWAS be needed. by will

It is rcalledthat in lts rcsolutionA/RES/57/337 1a Juty 2003, of entitled'Prevention ArmedConflict'the General of Assembly stressed the needto bring to justlcethe perpetrators war crimesand crimesagainst of humanity a significant as contribution towardsthepromotion a cutture of of prevention (paragraph 12). The roleofthe cjvjtsociety theRghtagainst in impunityand in advancing responsibility protectwilt continue be the to to going forward. If the UN system is to be effectivein tending critical assistaflce the area of capacity-building in and in forging cooperation betweenthe UN and rcgionalorganizations the nationatand regional at levels,then an improvemnt the coordlnation coherence in and amongUN agencies alsobe essentialin will ensurlng success the tmplementation the of of the Resoonsibilitv Protect. to Mr. Presldent, Let us keepin mindthat the Responslbiljty Protectpredates to 2005. The spiritof the conceptmay be partlytracedto the traumattc eventsthat led to the San Francisco Conference 1945 and gave birth to the UN in Charterwhichspellout the principles and purposes the united Nations. of Nor is the conceptnew to the General Assembly,ln the many resotutions and conventions adoptedby the GeneralAssembly during the struggte aqainstapartheid,the ovrwhelming majority of memberStates of this Assembly only reJectd argumentthat apartheid not the was an internal humanrightsaffair but alsodefinedit as crimeagainst humanityfor which the internatlonal communityhad a primary or prjncipalresponsibittty to provideassistance end it. intervene and to

5

Therehasbeenon occasion discernible a tendency discussthe to R2P gainedfrorn the lssons only in terms of the hindsight learnedfrom the mistakes our recentpastexperiences the foresight preventtheir of and to repetition the tuture, Regrettably, ongoing in the conflicts manypartsof in the world, includingAfrica. give us insights into the present but yet convenientlyforgotten reality that we (the internationalcommunlty) to 'continue lackthe needed will, as wellas a common visionofour oolitical responsibility the face of massiveviolationsof human rights and in humanitarian catastrophesoccasloned byconflict'(SG's report4/58/323of 2003). Ghanabelieves that the Responsibiliv Protect a reaffirmation to is of our faith in the dignityof the humanpersonand a tool for the realization and fulfilmentof the promiseand potentialof th Charterof the United Nations. Perhaps would be a good ldea for the Secretary-General it to submit proposalsfor a Global Strategy or Plan of Action for the implementation the R2P. of I wishto endby paying specialtnbute Professor a to Edward Luck,the Secretary-General's R2P, SpecialAdviser on aswellasDr. Francis Deng, the Secretary-General's Special Representative the Prevention cenocide for of process forleading broad 6 consultative involving lvlember all Statesand civil groups, the results of which have been well reflectedin the society Secrctary-Gneral's report, Ghana looksforward continuing dialogue to the towardseffectiv implementation, I thank you, IVr.Presldent.