Lithuania’s Foreign Minister voiced Lithuania’s support for two initiatives: the French-Mexican initiative on veto restraint by the UN Security Council in the case of atrocity crimes, and Liechtenstein’s initiative on the Code of Conduct regarding Security Council action against genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. This voluntary political commitment contains a pledge to support timely and decisive Security Council action in situations involving atrocity crimes, as well as a pledge not to vote against credible draft Security Council resolutions aimed at preventing or ending these crimes.
Linkevičius recalled Lithuania’s experience gained as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, when the permanent members exercised the power of veto and the UN Security Council failed to adopt resolutions that would have prevented further bloodshed in Syria, emphasized acceptance of the massacres in Srebrenica as genocide, and established an international tribunal for the purpose of prosecuting persons responsible for crimes connected with the downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in Ukraine.
“The international community must do everything in their power to prevent mass crimes against humanity and to protect their victims. Those responsible for the crimes must be brought to justice, the crimes must be referred to the International Criminal Court and other international or mixed criminal tribunals. The veto power that belongs to the permanent members of the UN Security Council is not a privilege, but a great responsibility – the responsibility and duty to protect the people,” said Lithuania’s Foreign Minister.
On the same day, Lithuania’s Foreign Minister attended a meeting of the Group of Friends of Mediation. There are more conflicts than ever before in today’s world, thus conflict prevention and peaceful resolution through such measures as mediation takes on greater importance. During the event, Linkevičius stressed the significance of conflict early warning and rapid response. According to him, it is necessary to receive reliable and timely information about the situation and possible threats, to ensure close cooperation among the member states, regional and subregional organizations and the UN Secretariat, as well as close cooperation with each other.
The involvement of women and religious communities at all levels is very important for conflict prevention or peaceful resolution. Telling the success stories of conflict resolution is also not less important. Founded in 2010, the Group of Friends of Mediation consists of 7 international organisations and 52 countries, including Lithuania. The group aims to promote and advance the use of mediation in the peaceful settlement of disputes, conflict prevention and resolution.
