It happened & still happening

Since the end of the 20th Century, the nature of armed conflict in the world is dominated by internal conflicts with civilians making the majority of the casualties than inter-state warfare. The genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda and Bosnia, as well as crimes against humanity in Kosovo, East Timor and Darfur have demonstrated massive failures by the international community to prevent atrocities. After these failures, there was a recognized need to shift the debate to crisis prevention with “never again” determination.

All member states of UN solemnly pledged in the September 2005 General assembly, the responsibility to protect all beleaguered and threatened civilians and populations irrespective of time place and circumstance. The doctrine is officially known as the responsibility to protect (R2P). The R2P must be depoliticized and a truly shared interest for all member states and the UN.

Jan Egeland, the former UN Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, in a commentary article published in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten on Saturday has called for world attention on forgotten conflicts where situation has deteriorated while the focal point of the world was centered on Gaza. His commentary in Norwegian when translated titled as “It happened while we were preoccupied with Gaza” draws attention to the humanitarian crisis in Congo, Sri Lanka, Somalia and Burma.

Jan Egeland concludes that Palestinians, Israelis and Middle Eastern people in general hope that a lot of attention can provide, ultimately, an effective pressure on the parties that create misery for themselves and their neighbors. Equally the, the forgotten conflicts also deserve our attention.

Jan Egeland is currently the Director at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI) and a Professor at the University of Stavanger.

In the 21st Century, the security of the communities and the individual are not just the responsibility of respective state, but must be encapsulated by preventive international policies on systematic violations of human rights and despotic governments.