Bertrand G. Ramcharan – författare

The concept of preventive diplomacy has captivated the United Nations since it was first articulated by Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld a half-century ago. Successive generations of diplomats and statesmen have invested in the idea that diplomatic efforts might be able to head off international conflicts and disasters. Dramatic successes, such as the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, contrast with dramatic failures, such as the inability of UN efforts to halt the invasion of Iraq in 2003. In this careful study, distinguished former UN civil servant Bertrand G. Ramcharan traces the history of the practice of preventive diplomacy by UN Secretaries-General, the Security Council, and other UN organizations, and assesses the record of preventive diplomacy and examines its prospects in an age of genocide and terrorism.

The prevention of violations of human rights must become the dominant protection strategy of the twenty-first century, nationally, regionally, and globally. This book clearly identifies the need for preventive human rights strategies, maps what exists by way of such strategies at the present time, and offers policy options to deal with the world of the future. Written by a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the book suggests the future lies in strong national protection systems backed up by regional and international organs and an international criminal justice system. The book explores the future of preventive human rights through a wide range of contemporary issues, including: climate change pandemics mass migration global poverty and pervasive inequality inter-state conflicts terrorism, including WMD terrorism gross violations of human rights the financial and economic crisisWe are already in a quite different world in the 21st century, and human rights thinking will need to evolve to meet its needs. This important and contemporary volume calls for the modification of current preventive human rights strategies, and is essential reading for all those concerned with the future of international relations and human rights.

The prevention of violations of human rights must become the dominant protection strategy of the twenty-first century, nationally, regionally, and globally. This book clearly identifies the need for preventive human rights strategies, maps what exists by way of such strategies at the present time, and offers policy options to deal with the world of the future. Written by a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the book suggests the future lies in strong national protection systems backed up by regional and international organs and an international criminal justice system. The book explores the future of preventive human rights through a wide range of contemporary issues, including: climate change pandemics mass migration global poverty and pervasive inequality inter-state conflicts terrorism, including WMD terrorism gross violations of human rights the financial and economic crisisWe are already in a quite different world in the 21st century, and human rights thinking will need to evolve to meet its needs. This important and contemporary volume calls for the modification of current preventive human rights strategies, and is essential reading for all those concerned with the future of international relations and human rights.

This unique book, one of the first of its kind, discusses how human rights actually featured in UN peace operations in the deadly conflicts in the former Yugoslavia between 1992 and 1996. It is based on original materials in the possession of the author, who was Director of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslava from 1992 to 1996 and also served as Director of the Office of the UN Special Representative in charge of all peacemaking, peacekeeping, and humanitarian operations in the region. The book brings out the strategic centrality of human rights in the wide-ranging humanitarian operations. It shows how the peacekeepers built in a human rights dimension for the first time in the history of UN peacekeeping. And it shows how the peace negotiators sought to build their peace proposals on the foundations of human rights. It shows the peacemakers advocating justice for the victims while proceeding with their negotiating efforts. The great value of this book is that the author, who was personally involved in all of the activities he writes about, shows how human rights were instilled in practice in UN peace operations over a period of some four years and it also reveals, for the first time, some innovative ideas advanced that might be helpful in future peace operations.

This book has emerged out of the author's experience as Director of an innovative peacemaking, peacekeeping and humanitarian initiative, the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia, between 1992 and 1996. What was striking about this conference was the experiment of two full-time Co-Chairmen, one from the United Nations and one from the European Union, who laboured tirelessly for peace in different parts of the former Yugoslavia for three and a half years. The strategies and organization of the conference had to be pieced together from the start by the Co-Chairmen and their colleagues; only in retrospect could the question whether there might have been experiences of international peace conferences that might have been useful at the beginning of this process be reviewed. This research is contained in Part One of this book, which offers a review of the role of international peace conferences in history. Part Two contains a case study of the strategies and experiences of the International Conference on the Former Yugoslavia.

This book places under scrutiny for the first time, whether and how, the United Nations Human Rights Council actually contributes to the protection of human rights in the face of pervasive gross violations world-wide. It finds that the Council does little of preventive protection, some mitigatory protection, and little remedial or compensatory protection. The Council’s response to situations of gross violations depends on the political alignments within its membership for each situation. The Council gives priority to cooperation and dialogue over principled denunciations of gross violations. It is not an organ of justice, but in some instances it is an organ for justice, inasmuch as it addresses the structural causes of violations. Much useful fact-finding takes place under the auspices of the Council, and it does contribute to the progressive development of international law.