Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
He described it as a “grave and urgent document”, adopted on the eve of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in December 1948, making it the first human rights treaty in UN history.
“Important lessons of the Holocaust, whose indescribable crimes led to the Convention – and the lessons of Cambodia, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, and others – made it absolutely clear that preventing genocide, and bringing its perpetrators to account before all humanity, is essential to the work of advancing human rights”, he said.
He stressed that preventing genocide was an “overriding principle” for all humanity, not just a point of international law.
The Convention calls on all States and people to maintain vigilance and demands action to prevent and to punish genocide.
He said genocide was “never unleashed without warning. It is always the culmination of preceding and identifiable patterns of systematic discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion or other characteristics – and of gross human rights violations, targeted as a matter of policy against a people; minority; community.”
Volker stated that genocide often feeds off dehumanizing and demonizing statements in the public sphere, while today, disinformation campaigns on social media can further amplify these statements, until condoning and justifying violence becomes normalized.”
He said it was “absolutely critical” to head off genocidal action in the digital sphere through better governance online.
He reiterated that there must be accountability, “not only because it provides justice for victims, but because accountability is central to ending genocide. Impunity is an enabler of genocide. Accountability is its nemesis.”
Mr. Türk urged all States that have not yet ratified or acceded to the Genocide Convention, to do so as a matter of high priority, in order to protect our common humanity”
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