Let's act on time to stop atrocity – IGP

The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mr Mohammed Ahmed Alhassan on Friday called for the development of capacities to stop global atrocities and its attendant security interventions.

“The global community must continuously build institutional capacity to effectively handle the prevention and management of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.

“Preventing mass atrocity is better than intervening after the act has been committed,” he said.

Mr Alhassan made the call at the closing ceremony of the maiden course on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in Accra.

The workshop was organised by Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre KAIPTC in collaboration with the Danish Government and the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect.

The two-week pilot course brought together 30 participants made up of policy makers from government institutions, personnel from the security services; non-governmental organisations and representatives from the African Union and ECOWAS.

Participants were taken through the foundations and evolution of R2P, its normative and legal frameworks.

Mr Alhassan said the global commitment to human protection, as enshrined in R2P, is laudable as it offers a great opportunity to prevent atrocities as happened in Cambodia, Rwanda and other places.

The IGP said: “States are the primary actors in domestic and international affairs and thus have the primary responsibility to protect its people.

“But we all have an important role to play if R2P is to remain a useful tool for atrocity prevention.

“This has necessitated the need for capacity building of all actors – military, police and civilian stakeholders, to better appreciate the principles of the R2P norm.”

Major General Obed Akwa, KAIPTC Commandant urged the participants to impart the knowledge and skills they had acquired during the course to others for the betterment of humanity.