On July 1, the Hellenic Permanent Mission to the United Nations addressed the 2024 UN General Assembly Plenary Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect. ‘R2P’, as it is most commonly referred to, is a principle adopted at the 2005 World Summit, during which, Heads of State and Government took steps in shielding populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
Within this context, States have a responsibility to protect their populations, the international community has a responsibility to assist States in these efforts and even protect the population in case the States fails to.
Greece has argued that action within the United Nations must be viewed through the prism of the ‘2030 Agenda’, the goals of ‘Our Common Agenda’ and the ‘New Agenda for Peace.’ In this regard, the need to strengthen the triple nexus approach becomes more relevant than ever. “As we are negotiating the Pact for the Future we need to make sure that we deliver a forward-looking and action-oriented text”, the Greek Mission underlined.
The Security Council has a vital role to play in preventing atrocities from happening and its cooperation with other UN bodies is regarded of equal importance. Greece will assume its duties as a non-permanent member of the Security Council for 2025/26 and pledges to mobilize collective action for facilitating decision making within the Security Council and ultimately contribute to the prevention of crimes against humanity.