The thirteenth report of the UN Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), entitled “Advancing atrocity prevention: Report of the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect,” reflects on how the UN has operationalized R2P through its prevention, early warning and response work. In doing so the Secretary-General provides an overview of how the UN Office on Genocide Prevention and R2P has led the UN’s efforts to halt the commission of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

The Secretary-General concludes by highlighting that effective and sustainable atrocity prevention remains subject to persistent challenges, including deficits in information collection and assessment, failure to take early and timely action in response to warning signs, and a lack of systematic implementation of atrocity prevention measures. The Secretary-General also reiterates the steps that must be undertaken to prioritize atrocity prevention: alert relevant actors when there is an atrocity risk and advocate for appropriate action, build national and regional capacity for prevention, support civil society and grassroots organizations, and integrate an atrocity prevention dimension into all relevant fields of the work of the United Nations.

The Global Centre has published a comprehensive summary of the report.