UN General Assembly
2004

Charter, and by the many conventions concluded within the United Nations framework, including, for example, the 1948 Geneva Convention. No longer - we all said - could or should the world turn away from unspeakable barbarities like that of the Holocaust. But we have not always lived up to those high expectations, as the tragedies of Rwanda and Bosnia ten years ago reminded us. Today we must resolve to do so and to engage in situations of humanitarian catastrophe or grave violations of international humanitarian law and to act in the face of other threats to international peace and security. The principle of non-interference has to be qualified by a duty to protect, especially where Governments are failing in that duty. We therefore need, for example, to be ready to support greater use by the Secretary-General of his powers under Article 99 of the Charter, to bring threats to peace to the Security Council's attention. We have to act quickly in response, because prevention is far better than cure. We should look to work more closely with