The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect welcomes today’s appointment of Dr. Jennifer M. Welsh to the position of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect.

Dr. Welsh’s appointment sends a clear signal from the UN Secretary-General of the need to strengthen the UN’s role in preventing mass atrocities. Dr. Welsh is currently a Professor in International Relations at the University of Oxford and co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict where she is leading a research project exploring preventive tools available to the international community.

Dr. Simon Adams, Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, welcomed the appointment: “The Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect plays a critical role in developing the conceptual, political and institutional aspects of the Responsibility to Protect. Dr. Welsh has been appointed Special Adviser at a time when populations in Syria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and elsewhere face the daily threat of mass atrocities. Dr. Welsh’s academic experience and personal resolve will help galvanize collective action in the pursuit of our shared objective of ending mass atrocity crimes once and for all.”

The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect looks forward to closely working with Dr. Welsh and to continue supporting the work of the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.