12/04/2006

The Hon. Ban Ki-moon
UN Secretary General Elect
c/o Ambassador Kim Won-soo
2 UN Plaza, Room 612,
New York, NY 10017

Dear Mr. Ban:

Congratulations on your election to the post of Secretary General of the United Nations, a job that Kofi Annan calls “the best possible job on Earth.” It is certainly one of the most important.

Among Mr. Annan’s greatest achievements was the promulgation of the Responsibility to Protect. This concept, adopted by the UN World Summit in 2005, holds that each nation has an obligation to protect its own population from “genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.” When “national authorities are manifestly failing to protect their populations” the UN asserts the right to take “collective action” to safeguard human rights and prevent loss of life.

In your acceptance speech to the General Assembly you noted that “the world’s peoples will not be fully served unless peace, development and human rights, the three pillars of the UN, are advanced together with equal vigor.” The Responsibility to Protect and the inauguration of the International Criminal Court significantly expand human rights protections. They make it clear that when sovereign states can’t or won’t protect their own people, the international community must.

The current crisis in Darfur illustrates that a great gap remains between the rhetoric and reality of protection. As Secretary General, I hope that you will move quickly to bring the Responsibility to Protect to life. Please make the implementation of the Responsibility to Protect your highest, most urgent priority.

Much current analysis focuses on the military aspects of enacting the Responsibility to Protect—the need for a clear doctrine for UN peacekeeping missions with mandates “to protect civilians under imminent threat,” more capable peacekeeping forces, and a stronger UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations. These are all important and necessary improvements, but the Responsibility to Protect implies a continuum of actions, starting with political and economic measures, to encourage protection of vulnerable populations without the use of military force.

The UN needs to ask if it can do more to predict, prevent and pre-empt massive human rights abuses that would trigger military action under the Responsibility to Protect. It needs to look at the developmental, political and economic tools at its disposal and whether it can coordinate them in an early and effective response to evolving human rights abuses. It needs to look at ways to improve cooperative action involving regional agents, such as the African Union. The Security Council also needs to help define clear standards for invoking the Responsibility to Protect, along with ways to develop a consensus for action.

Unlike all of your predecessors, you will take office at a time when the world acknowledges that the UN has an obligation to stop genocide and other crimes against humanity. Thus, you begin your term with the mandate and the time in office to turn the promise to protect into a program for protection that could save hundreds of thousands of lives.

Darfur is a set back to the Responsibility to Protect. We have a responsibility to do better the next time, and there is a lot of work to do.

Thank you again for your willingness to lead the UN at such an important and challenging time.

Sincerely,

Kenneth H. Bacon
President