Development and the responsibility to protect: Recognizing and addressing embedded risks and drivers of atrocity crimes - Report of the Secretary-General (A/77/910-S/2023/409) [EN/AR/RU/ZH]

General Assembly
Seventy-seventh session
Agenda items 13, 120 and 132

Integrated and coordinated implementation of and follow-up to the outcomes of the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields

Follow-up to the outcome of the Millennium Summit

The responsibility to protect and the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity

Security Council
Seventy-eighth year

Summary

At the 2005 World Summit, States Members of the United Nations affirmed their responsibility to protect their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. States agreed to support each other in realizing the stated responsibility under the concept of the responsibility to protect, and to take collective action, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, where States were unable or unwilling to do so themselves. As has been reiterated in successive annual reports of the Secretary-General on the responsibility to protect, the commitment requires that States provide accountable leadership, take purposeful decisions and make significant investment to integrate the prevention of atrocity crimes across domestic strategies, policies, programmes and institutions.

The present report provides an examination of the interrelationship between sustainable development and the responsibility to protect. It includes a recognition that development can build the conditions for sustainable peace, equitable growth and accountable governance and thereby cement the prospects for realizing the fundamental purposes and objectives of the responsibility to protect. At the same time, development deficits or exclusions have the potential to trigger and escalate mass atrocity risks, especially when combined with other critical factors. The risk factors, drivers and multipliers of atrocity crimes as they relate to sustainable development are discussed in the present report. Member States are encouraged to recognize the intersection between development and the responsibility to protect and to leverage development programming across the spectrum of atrocity risk assessment, early warning, preparedness and response to avoid, reduce or mitigate these risks and occurrences.