The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect welcomes the election of Argentina, Australia, Luxembourg, the Republic of Korea and Rwanda to the United Nations (UN) Security Council for 2013 and 2014. With the addition of these members, in 2013 the Security Council will consist of an overwhelming majority of strong supporters of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). It is our hope that they will use this opportunity to uphold their commitment to R2P and to take early preventive action to avert the type of tragedies witnessed in Rwanda, Srebrenica and more recently in Syria and Sudan.

Security Council members have a responsibility to ensure that populations are protected in every country from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. To this end, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect urges all Security Council members to:

• • • Seek unity and bridge differences on the UN Security Council regarding Syria;
    • Hold a UN Department of Political Affairs Horizon Scanning briefing during their presidency to inform council members of potential crises;
    • Request briefings from the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide as well as Special Rapporteurs on situations where populations are at risk;
    • Where appropriate, apply the R2P three pillar framework to crisis situations and take responsible and timely action.

Following the election, Dr. Simon Adams, Executive Director of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, remarked: “R2P is only ever as strong as the commitment of the UN member states who support it. Stopping mass atrocity crimes is fundamentally a question of political will. We welcome the election of these new UN Security Council members and applaud their commitment to ending crimes that stain the conscience of the world.”