Addressing atrocity crimes is urgent, CoNGO President Bautista said at ECOSOC meeting; he also announced two new NGO committees in formation

New York City | January 26, 2023 (CoNGO InfoNews)—At the core of atrocity crimes is the “ignominious assault on intrinsic human dignity and fundamental human rights.”

This was the gist of the message that President Liberato Bautista of the Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations (CoNGO) issued at the special meeting convened on January 24 by the President of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), Ms. Lachezara Stoeva. The special meeting focused on the “social and economic measures to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity”.

Denying people food and freedom, jobs and justice, land and liberation provides fertile ground for atrocity crimes, Bautista emphasized, noting the meeting’s emphasis on prevention and the responsibility to protect populations from such crimes.

Bautista took the occasion to announce the creation of two NGO committees under the auspices of CoNGO whose agenda will include the concerns addressed at the special meeting.

One committee to be organized will be called the NGO Committee on Racism, Colonialism, Slavery, Xenophobia and All Forms of Discrimination and Intolerance and another committee to be called NGO Committee of Youth and Future Generations.

Bautista’s statement, read on his behalf by Ms. Dorothy Davis,  ended with the plea that governments and the United Nations consider investing in young people as wise investment in the prevention of atrocity crimes. Ms. Davis is an NGO representative to the UN of the Congressional Black Caucus Institute which is a member of the CoNGO Board.

Read here President Bautista’s full statement.

CoNGO member organizations are invited to join as founding organizations for the two new NGO Committees mentioned above. If interested, please email the CoNGO President at president@ngocongo.org.