United Nations Forum on Minority Issues Geneva, 25 November Speech given on behalf of Jennifer Welsh, Special Adviser of the United Nations Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect I would like to express my gratitude to the United Nations Forum on Minorities Issues for dedicating this session to preventing and addressing violence and atrocity crimes against minorities. I would also like to thank the Forum for inviting me to deliver these remarks on behalf of Jennifer Welsh, the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Responsibility to Protect. Distinguished delegates and participants, At the 2005 World Summit, Heads of State and Government committed to the responsibility to protect their populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. This entails the responsibility of States to protect their own populations from atrocity crimes; the responsibility to help other States do so through the provision of international assistance; and the responsibility to take collective action when a State manifestly fails to protect its population. The principle builds on existing obligations under international law and seeks to enhance compliance with those legal commitments. Above all, it embodies the international community’s political determination to prevent and respond to atrocity crimes. In particular, the word “populations” refers to all people living within a State’s territory, whether citizens or not, including national, ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities. This is very much in line with Article One of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities, according to which “States shall take measures where required to ensure that persons belonging to minorities may exercise fully and effectively all their human rights and fundamental freedoms without any discrimination and in full equality before the law”.