UN General Assembly
1993

dignity of the individual is frequently violated by authoritarian and repressive regimes. At Vienna in June, the World Conference on Human Rights sought to strengthen the protection of human rights worldwide. Most of us who attended that meeting came away feeling that progress had indeed been made. It is essential that the agreed Programme of Action be given the highest priority and acted on by this Assembly. A United Nations commissioner for human rights should be appointed. The resources devoted to human rights activities in the United Nations system should be doubled. The United Nations human rights machinery, especially in relation to the protection of women, should be strengthened. And we must make decisive progress on the establishment of an international criminal tribunal to prosecute persons responsible for violations of humanitarian law wherever they occur. The abuses of human rights in Yugoslavia have provoked a profound determination in the international community that those responsible must be brought to justice. The ad hoc approach, unavoidable in the case of Yugoslavia, points to the need for a permanent international criminal