Great, But Will Anyone Listen?
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon this week appointed Sudanese scholar Francis Deng as his special adviser for the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities, succeeding Juan Mendez in that position. Ambassador Deng had an effective tenure as Representative of the Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), during which time he developed very innovative yet widely accepted guiding principles for the treatment of IDPs. And he was perhaps the first to speak of sovereignty as responsilibity, an idea that has been reflected in the concept of a "responsibility to protect." There are obviously a lot of questions as to whether anyone, starting with the Secretary General, will listen to him. But as was the case with Juan Mendez, Francis Deng is as good as they come.posted by May 31, 2007 - 02:06 AM | (0) Comments | Tell-a-Friend
