(UNI) The current rise in hate speech, racial tensions and identity-based violence is alarming, the UN Special Adviser on preventing genocide has said, highlighting his concern that ‘complacency is still strong’, when it comes to stopping the mass-killing or extinction of national, ethnic, racial or religious groups.
Marking the 70th anniversary of The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, in the General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York, Adama Dieng said on Friday it was important to speak out more forcefully.
“At a time of decline of the respect for international human rights, humanitarian and refugee law,” we must commit to turn prevention into reality, he added.
The Convention was adopted on 9 December,1948, by the General assembly in a call for preventative action so that “never again” would the world see the kind of mass-murder perpetrated by the Nazis against the Jews in the Holocaust, during World War Two.
The critical message at Friday’s commemoration was clear. Mr Dieng, Secretary-General António Guterres, and President of the General Assembly, Maria Fernanda Espinosa, all outlined that the atrocity crime and scourge of genocide remains a threat and reality today.