UN General Assembly
1991

Naturally, human rights are primarily the responsibility of national governments. But the world cannot sit idly by when one of the Member States of the United Nations terrorises its own people. History shows that such acts, apart from being criminal, can endanger international peace and security if nothing is done about them. Recently we have witnessed intervention by our world Organisation for the sake of protecting human rights. In the aftermath of the liberation of Kuwait a number of countries belonging to the international coalition provided a safe haven to Iraqi Kurds fleeing from repression and attempts at genocide by their own Government. This action, which implemented the relevant Security Council resolutions, has meanwhile been followed up by the stationing of a corps of United Nations civil guards, this time with the consent of the Government concerned. In a regional context we have also seen the peace-keeping operation by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) during the bloody civil war in Liberia.