the right of the most vulnerable in society, including ethnic, religious, national, and racial minorities. This must also go hand in hand with addressing root causes of violence, divisions and tension in our societies and promoting peace and inclusion. States have the primary responsibility to prevent populations from atrocity crimes. While there has been much progress in this regard, including increased understanding of the early warning signs of these crimes, more efforts are still needed to ensure that this translates into early response. Effective prevention should also include placing local communities at the center of action and supporting them to implement prevention strategies at the community level. In this context, it is critical that those with influence in communities such as political, religious and community leaders, and civil society actors advocate for peaceful coexistence. Insofar as minorities constitute vulnerable communities in many of the places they inhabit, it is essential to strengthen efforts in this direction. Finally, effective prevention also requires the international community to take timely action to protect populations at risk of these crimes and to hold accountable those responsible. Too often we have seen the inability of the Security Council to take unified action to protect population at risk of even the most serious crimes. I am glad to see that other intergovernmental bodies such as the Human Rights Council have tried to fill the gap by taking proactive approaches to prevention and establishing mechanisms for accountability for the most serious crimes. Much more is needed from the international community to live up to the commitments we have made to protect populations against these crimes; we are still far too often failing to do so. I hope your conversation today can generate concrete recommendations and action in this regard, building on existing tools and mechanisms. I look forward to seeing the outcome of the Forum’s deliberations and working closely with all of you in its implementation. You can count on my Office as a partner in taking these efforts forward. Thank you. -4-