UN General Assembly
2018

In the same vein, we urge all nations to recall that the countries of the United Nations committed themselves, 13 years ago, to the responsibility to protect their own populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. What we did not do was to give any country or group of countries the right to intervene uninvited in the affairs of any other country. We certainly did not authorize military intervention in any way, shape or form. What we agreed was that there is a collective responsibility to encourage and help each country uphold its individual commitment to protect its own people, and we declared our preparedness to take timely and decisive action, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations, to help them to do so. We all know that, in the words of the Charter itself, “Nothing contained in the present Charter shall authorize the United Nations to intervene in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any state”.