A/HRC/16/45 III. A minority rights perspective at the international level: a tool for conflict prevention 65. According to a statistical assessment carried out by Minority Rights Group International, over 55 per cent of violent conflicts of a significant intensity between 2007 and 2009 had at their core violations of minority rights or tensions between communities. In a further 22 per cent of conflicts, minority issues had emerged or receded in the course of the evolution of the conflict. Those figures indicate that Governments, donors and intergovernmental organizations need to allocate significant attention and resources to minority issues as sources of conflict. However, the current picture in this regard is mixed. A. United Nations institutional framework 66. The tragic events in Rwanda and in the former Yugoslavia gave new impetus to efforts by the United Nations to protect minorities – described by the Secretary-General as “genocide’s most frequent targets”15. In 2004, the Secretary-General established the mandate of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. The principal objective of the Special Adviser is to advise the Secretary-General and the Security Council on actions to protect vulnerable populations from genocide. The Office of the Special Adviser attempts to identify a range of potential threats to minority populations at an early stage and make recommendations regarding constructive management of cultural diversity issues.16 67. An analysis framework is used by the Special Adviser’s office to identify threats to minority communities at an early stage. In addition to genocide-specific indicators, such as the demonization of minority communities and a history of genocide in the country, it includes indicators of broader significance to minorities, such as conflicts over land, power, security and expressions of group identity, such as language, religion and culture, and attacks on cultural and religious property and symbols.17 The Special Adviser’s office is privy to an enormous flow of information generated by sources inside and external to the United Nations system. The Special Adviser’s gauge for sifting through that information flow is calibrated for precursors to genocide: a focus that is limited, fortunately, to a small number of situations. There is a need for additional tools that focus on chronic abuses of minority rights at the earliest stages, to identify situations needing more upstream preventive action. 68. In the 2005 World Summit Outcome, States Members of the United Nations conceptualized a principle that is of prime importance to the protection of minorities: the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity – “the responsibility to protect”. This concept recognizes the duty of the international community to intervene to protect populations when their own Governments cannot or lack the will to do so. It prioritizes above all the use of appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, before legitimate force is contemplated. The focus of the institutional mechanisms that are being developed to implement the concept of the responsibility to protect will be limited to specific crimes.18 A broader focus on minority rights protections as a tool for protection from conflict will need to be the task of other mechanisms. 15 16 17 18 16 SG/SM/9245, 7 April 2004. Interview with member of the staff of the Special Adviser’s office, 10 May 2010. See www.un.org/preventgenocide/adviser/. See the report of the Secretary-General on early warning, assessment and the responsibility to protect (A/64/864).