By Ilayda Cakirtekin
ISTANBUL (AA) - Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar urged an end to the genocide in the Gaza Strip to fulfill the world’s responsibility as human beings during her speech Tuesday to the UN General Assembly.
"For the sake of future generations to fulfill our responsibility as human beings, to ensure that we are on the right side of the history, we should do the right thing. We did not stop the Holocaust. We did not stop the genocide in Rwanda. We did not stop the genocide in Srebrenica. We must stop the genocide in Gaza. There are no excuses anymore," said Musar.
She noted that the Genocide Convention risks becoming a "relic of the past," underlining that some states put the International Criminal Court to "its greatest challenge ever," citing judges and prosecutors of the court are facing "sanctions" and "intimidation … as if the states that sanction them would prefer to shield the alleged perpetrators of atrocities rather than confront the truth and help deliver justice.”
She asked how they will explain to their children that in the new normal, the strong can take what they want, kill with impunity, wage wars and trample international law simply because they can.
"The Security Council, envisioned as the very pillar of collective security, is failing to meet the expectations of the world," Musar noted, demanding reform of the Council.
Highlighting the need for fighting for human dignity, she noted that hunger is still being weaponized.
"We receive reports on a daily basis of how women and children are starved because they are marked as legitimate targets, as enemies. How cruel, how inhumane is that? Ladies and gentlemen, we cannot allow this to happen any longer," said Musar.
She stressed that the world will be judged by how it treats the planet and its people, urging that leaders must not surrender to a world where power alone prevails.
"If we, the leaders of this planet, can offer nothing but terror, conflict, pollution, fear, inequalities and war to 8 billion people, then we must confront the truth: We are complicit in crimes against our civilization and our planet," added Musar.