"R2P is the expression of our irrevocable collective commitment to ensure that never again are we confronted with the horrors of another Rwanda or Srebrenica, Cambodia or the Holocaust...  We must continue our efforts to overcome the gaps in will, imagination and capacity to implement this principle to ensure that we prevent future atrocities, and never again fail people in need."

- Mr. Gary Quinlan, Australian Ambassafdor to the United Nations, 2009

"Prevention is the single most important dimension of the responsibility to protect."

- Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty

 "There can be no more important issue, and no more dinbing obligation, that the prevention of genocide.  Indeed, this may be considered one of the original purposes of the United Nations."

- UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, 2004

Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities

Prevention is a key focus of the work at the Asia-Pacific for the Responsibility to Protect.

Preventing genocide and mass atrocities saves lives.  The Responsibility to Protect is all about the use of government authority and international cooperation to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.  Prevention is the best form of protection.  More lives are saved by preventing these crimes than by reacting to them when they have already commenced.

Prevention is also the most cost-effective approach.  Even a comprehensive approach to prevention costs just a fraction of the massive costs associated with reacting to mass killing and rebuilding states in its aftermath.

Prevention promotes international engagement with the responsibility to protect.  Many actors are willing to engage with prevention, such as national governments, international organisations and civil society organisations.

Reports 

 Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities - Causes and Paths of Escalation

Key to preventing genocide and mass atrocities is a sound understanding of the causes and paths of escalation that lead to their commission.  This report explores the preconditions for mass atrocities.  It considers risk escalation processes, and triggers fro mass violence.  Knowledge of the processes that lead to genocide and mass atrocities is an essential first step toward their prevention.

Coming Soon

The Responsibility to Prevent:  Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies for Operationalisation

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