UN General Assembly
2005

are at stake, such a responsibility must not be compromised by political considerations. Collective 16 action to prevent and respond to genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes must, therefore, not be made impossible by a veto or threat of veto by one of the permanent members of the Council. We hope that the Council will stand up to the challenge raised by the summit. The membership as a whole clearly has a shared obligation in this respect. Our achievement in the Summit Outcome on the “responsibility to protect” stands in stark contrast to our silence on the importance of fighting impunity for the worst crimes of international concern. More progress has been made in this area in the past few years than in almost any other area of international relations. Transitional justice is now an inevitable element of any serious effort to help societies in post- conflict situations. There is now a close and well- established relationship between the International Criminal Court and the United Nations, in particular after the Security Council decision to mandate the