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"As a member of the UN Human Rights Council, Armenia enlisted among its priorities the contribution to global efforts to prevent genocide and strengthening the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect," Fm Zohrab Mnatsakanyan stated on Thursday at the 12th Ministerial Meeting on the Responsibility to Protect.

Addressing the participants of the meeting, the minister reminded that in 2015 Armenia led the global efforts to designate 9 December as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.

"By this we have provided together collectively an additional platform to develop and invest in our collective efforts for the prevention agenda. We have been consistently outlining the importance of strengthening capacities at both national, regional and international levels to detect and act on warning signs, which may lead to massive crimes, and the  necessity to prevent genocide and other mass atrocities at early stages. All Genocides could have been prevented, whether it is the Armenian Genocide, the Jewish Holocaust, the Rwandan Genocide or other atrocity crimes," the minister noted, adding: "Dissemination of hatred, intolerance, radicalism, war propaganda, incitement to and actual discrimination against racial, national, ethnic, religious and all other minorities, as well as targeted attacks against civilians continue to shape present realities in different parts of the world. The international community, the United Nations and its Member States are still ill-prepared to respond in a timely and decisive manner to these signals of trouble."

In the words of the FM, under no circumstances sovereignty can be a safe haven for perpetrating gross and grave human rights violations against those who are peacefully exercising their human rights, including the right of self-determination. "No nation can be afforded the right to kill behind the thick curtain of sovereignty. The responsibility to protect is critical in this regard, as it reminds that sovereignty is not a license for impunity but a responsibility. Sovereignty should be exactly the primary and most functional level for the effective implementation of the responsibility to protect. International cooperation to strengthen national capacities to protect remains important as ever," said Mnatsakanyan.