In his first interview since taking office in August, Beyani reflected on the origins of his mandate, created after the genocides in Rwanda and Srebrenica, and drew troubling parallels with the crises unfolding today. He said the scale of current violations signals a deeply worrying trend.
“We are seeing massive violations of international human rights law, direct attacks on civilians, and blatant noncompliance with international humanitarian law,” he said. “The risk of atrocities, and the actual happening of atrocities, is very, very high.”
He pointed to the escalating violence in Sudan as among the most urgent concerns. Decades after the first UN investigation into atrocities in Darfur, the situation continues to deteriorate. “Nothing has changed,” he said. “The fall of the civilian government has only exacerbated the crisis.”
Beyani heads the Office on the Prevention of Genocide and the Responsibility to Protect, which functions as the UN’s internal early warning mechanism.
The Office monitors and analyses a set of 14 risk factors drawn from the Genocide Convention and international case law. These include armed conflict involving ethnic or religious communities, widespread hate speech, and the collapse of the rule of law.
When these factors indicate a pattern that could lead to atrocity crimes, the Office alerts the UN Secretary-General, the Security Council and relevant agencies. “Once our Office sounds the alarm, it signals that the threshold is about to be crossed,” he said. While the Office does not determine whether genocide has occurred, it plays a central role in trying to prevent it.
Beyani stressed that accountability mechanisms remain an essential tool for prevention. He noted that the International Criminal Court’s conviction of Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga in 2012 for recruiting child soldiers had a deterrent effect, prompting other armed leaders to publicly denounce such practices.
He also cited ongoing cases before the International Court of Justice, including The Gambia’s application against Myanmar and the provisional measures issued in the case brought by South Africa concerning Gaza. “Prevention includes accountability,” he said, emphasising that justice sends a clear signal to perpetrators that the world is watching.
–UN/ChannelAfrica–
