The UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser, Mr. George Okoth-Obbo, introduced this week the Secretary-General’s 2023 Report on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) entitled Development and the responsibility to protect: recognizing and addressing embedded risks and drivers of atrocity crimes (A/77/910-S/2023/409).
The report explores an intersection between R2P and development. It outlines the importance of an integrated prevention approach capable of identifying key risks embedded in social and economic patterns of deprivation or inequality. It also encourages Member States to invest in national capabilities and coordination mechanisms for early detection, early warning, prevention, and response to atrocities.
The “Training toolkit: establishing and managing national mechanisms for mass atrocity prevention,” published by GAAMAC’s Africa Working Group in 2021, is mentioned as a source of concrete examples of national mechanisms for atrocity prevention.
The toolkit is a practical capacity-building and implementation guide in mass atrocity prevention and complements the Manual on Best Practices for the Establishment and Management of National Mechanisms for Genocide and Mass Atrocities Prevention, launched by GAAMAC’s Africa Working Group in 2019. Since its publication, the working group has organized numerous trainings and workshops to disseminate the toolkit among practitioners in Africa.
GAAMAC supports the training of domestic actors in atrocity prevention and understands that national mechanisms are key for promoting local ownership and participation towards mass atrocity prevention.
