The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect welcomes today’s historic United Nations (UN) General Assembly resolution on the crisis in Syria. Today’s resolution sends a strong message to the al-Assad regime that it cannot continue to kill its own people without fear of consequence or sanction.

In keeping with the 2005 commitment to the Responsibility to Protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing, the UN General Assembly has an important role to play in averting and halting mass atrocities. Yet, rarely has the UN General Assembly sought to use its preventive powers in the midst of a crisis to speak out on behalf of those facing a daily threat of mass atrocity crimes.

In supporting today’s resolution the UN General Assembly took an important step in upholding the Responsibility to Protect and in declaring that the international community will not be bystanders to ongoing crimes against humanity in Syria.