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	Responsibility to Protect: UN Secretary-General urges action to make it ‘a living reality’ by United Nations News   18 January 2012   The principle of ‘responsibility to protect’ was tested as never before in 2011, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today, calling for action to ensure that this tool is a “living reality” for the world’s people.   “In 2011, The Responsibility to Protect; the principle was tested as never before,” Mr. Ban said in an address to the Stanley Foundation Conference on the Responsibility to Protect.   “The results were uneven but, at the end of the day, tens of thousands of lives were saved,” he stated.   “We gave hope to people long oppressed. In Libya, Côte d’Ivoire, South Sudan, Yemen and Syria, we demonstrated that the principle of human protection is a defining purpose of the United Nations in the twenty-first century.   “We also learned important lessons,” he added. “For one, we have learned that this Organization cannot stand on the sidelines when challenged to take preventive action. Where there is a ‘clear and present danger.”   Agreed at a summit of world leaders in 2005 and sometimes known as ‘R2P’, the principle of the responsibility to protect holds States responsible for shielding their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing, and related crimes against humanity and requires the international community to step in if this obligation is not met. The Secretary-General said that lessons were learned about the UN’s own limitations, as in the case of the recent violence in South Sudan.   “We saw it coming weeks before,” he stated. “Yet we were not able to stop it. Nor was the government, which like others has primary responsibility for protecting its citizens.   “The reason was painfully simple: we were denied the use of necessary resources – in particular helicopters that would have given us mobility and reach in a vast region without roads. At the critical moment, I was reduced to begging for replacements from neighbouring countries and missions.   “So, a key challenge in putting the Responsibility to Protect into practice is this: how do we do our job... how do we deliver on Security Council mandates... when the very members of the Council do not give us the support we need?”   Mr. Ban also stressed the importance of prevention – proactive, decisive and early action to stop violence before it begins – and called for making 2012 the Year of Prevention.   He pledged that the UN will redouble its efforts at training, education and capacity-building on human rights, humanitarian law and democratic values and practices. It will also undertake development and peacebuilding in ways that reduce tensions among groups and strengthen institutional barriers to sectarian violence.   Mr. Ban noted that the “next test of our common humanity” is Syria, where more than 5,000 people have lost their lives since a popular uprising began in March last year. The Secretary-General has repeatedly called on President Bashar Al-Assad to stop killing his own people.   “Even as I make these calls, however, I am mindful of the complexities,” said Mr. Ban. “At a time when unity is required, the Security Council is divided. Efforts by regional friends and organizations such as the Arab League are very welcome, but so far they have not borne fruit.   “Such is the nature of the Responsibility to Protect. It can be a minefield of political calculation and competing national interests. The result too often is hesitation or inaction. This we can not afford.”   “We have a moral responsibility to push ahead,” he stated. “to make the Responsibility to Protect a living reality for the peoples of the world.”
	"Doomsday" ticks closer on nuclear fears by Bulletin of Atomic Scientists   January 2012   Global uncertainty on how to deal with the threats of nuclear weapons and climate change has forced the "Doomsday clock" one minute closer to midnight, leading international scientists say.   "It is now five minutes to midnight," says Allison Macfarlan, chair of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists, which created the Doomsday clock in 1947 as a barometer of how close the world is to an apocalyptic end.   The last decision by the group, which includes a host of Nobel Prize winning scientists, in 2010 moved the clock a minute further away from midnight on hopes of global nuclear co-operation and the election of President Barack Obama.   Tuesday"s decision pushes the clock back to the time where it was in 2007.   "It is clear that the change that appeared to be happening at the time is not happening," said co-chair Lawrence Krauss. "Business as usual reigns the norm among world leaders."   Increasing nuclear tensions, refusal to engage in global action on climate change, and a growing tendency to reject science when it comes to major world concerns were cited as key reasons for the latest tick on the clock.   The nuclear accident at Japan"s Fukushima plant also highlighted the volatility of relying on nuclear power in areas prone to natural disasters, scientists said.   Robert Socolow, a member of the group"s science and security board and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University called for better world political leadership that accepts the role of science.   The group said it was "heartened by" a series of world protest movements, including the Arab spring, the Occupy demonstrations in the United States and protests in Russia, which showed people were seeking a greater say in their future. Visit the related web page
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