"Part of my job is to provide the Security Council information regarding the worst type of human-rights violations, those warranting a response by the international community.
I have based my work on the existing, universally binding legal obligation expressed in the 1948 Genocide Convention not only to punish genocide, but to prevent it. This legal commitment was reinforced at the September 2005 World Summit with a broader, political and moral commitment by which all member states of the United Nations have now accepted the responsibility to protect civilians from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
That protection may include, in limited cases, nonconsensual means when governments are unwilling or unable to protect their own citizens. As special adviser, I have stressed that international involvement with the consent of the government in question is always preferable.
Yet despite these obligations and commitments, people continue to be targeted for violence and murder solely because of their ethnic origin. This is happening most flagrantly today in the Sudanese region of Darfur.
Action is particularly needed in Darfur, where the threat of genocide continues to loom large."
Further reading
Apr 7 2006 UN's Mendez on Darfur: "Left unattended, the situation may degenerate into genocide"
Apr 8 2006 UN Action Plan to Prevent Genocide - Juan E Mendez of Argentina, Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide
Apr 8 2006 What is the difference between genocide and ethnic cleansing?
Apr 9 2006 Juan Mendez, UN Special Adviser on Prevention of Genocide, tells press "definitely ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes in Darfur"
Apr 9 2006 The Genocide Convention required States to prevent genocide - Mendez
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