Mr Chairman, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

I would like to start by thanking Prime Minister Persson for organizing this conference. Genocide is the most extreme kind of human rights violation and its prevention a challenge to the international community. The Stockholm International Forum began with a conference on the Holocaust, which rightly attracted considerable public attention. It is only logical therefore that it should now focus on this important issue.

The history of my country is inseparably bound up with the Holocaust, that horrific crime against humanity perpetrated against the Jews of Germany and Europe. I can assure you that we, the democratic Germany have acknowledged our responsibility for that genocide and accepted the obligations such a responsibility entails.

One obligation it entails is to vigorously combat anti-Semitism and racism. Another is to pursue a foreign policy which ensures that never again will war and other horrors be unleashed from German soil, that there will be no repetition of the Holocaust and that also in the international arena we do everything in our power to protect human rights and prevent genocide and similar atrocities.

In the struggle against impunity for the perpetrators of genocide the international community can now point to some historic achievements: the establishment of the International Criminal Court means resolute action can now be taken to prevent genocide, crimes against humanity and serious war crimes and also to call those guilty of such crimes to account. Political leaders, soldiers and paramilitaries can no longer get away with the most horrific crimes by invoking immunity and state sovereignty. We must continue to work hard over the years ahead to make the International Criminal Court an effective and truly universal body and we must defend the integrity of the Rome Statute.

Clearly, however, preventing genocide has to start at a much earlier stage. It must start wherever particular groups in society are subjected to systematic discrimination and persecution.

That brings me to the first point I want to make: to prevent genocide we need to step up our efforts to establish effective international safeguards for human rights. All kinds of serious human rights abuses tend to occur before genocide. Genocide - like most severe crises and wars for that matter - is usually preceded by human rights violations on a massive scale. The much quoted words of Mary Robinson, the former High Commissioner for Human Rights, ring only too true: "The human rights violations today are the wars of tomorrow".

Wherever watertight safeguards exist to protect human dignity and human rights, no one need fear any threat or persecution as a member of a particular group. It was this insight and their knowledge of Germany's recent past that led the authors of our Basic Law to recognize human rights as sacrosanct and write them into the constitution. As a result, active commitment to protect and enhance respect for human rights in all parts of the world is a cornerstone of Germany's foreign policy.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Where neither safeguards nor respect for human rights exist, however, nothing we do in the hope of securing peace will be to any avail. But the converse is also true, and that is the second point I want to make. The best strategy for protecting human rights is active prevention of situations which could lead to violence and conflict. It is only logical therefore that we regard civilian crisis prevention as one of our foreign-policy priorities. To a greater extent than in the past, this has to become an important dimension not only of our foreign, security and development policy but also of our economic, financial and environmental policy.This is essential if we are to create the global 'culture of prevention' that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called for.

Srebrenica or Rwanda have been traumatic events for the international community. They made us aware of the fact that today genocide is most likely to occur in countries - especially failing or failed states - riven by internal conflicts. At the same time these "new wars", as you might call them, tend to spill over into neighbouring countries. In other cases intervention by neighbouring countries in pursuit of their own interests is fanning the flames of the conflict rather than helping to resolve it.

For the German Government one thing is clear: such situations can only be addressed by a strategy that is based on a broad concept of security. A concept of security designed to achieve political, economic, ecological and social stability.

Srebrenica and Rwanda serve as a grim warning to the international community that:

we must spare no effort to defuse potential conflicts by peaceful means, but when all else fails, we must be ready to intervene also with military means if necessary so that we can provide effective protection for the civilian population.

On 7 April the United Nations will officially commemorate a profoundly sad event, the genocide in Rwanda 10 years ago, and also call to mind the Carlsson Commission's report of 1999.

This report made a number of recommendations highlighting in concrete terms how the international community can live up to its clear obligation to prevent such abominations. The German Government is ready here to play its part. But there is one stipulation on which we must insist: Any use of coercive means must be sanctioned by international law and can only be the means of last resort.

Ladies and gentlemen,
The third point I want to make is that a 'culture of prevention' - and this goes also for the prevention of genocide - requires strong multilateral institutions. The United Nations is the sole body with international legitimacy to use force, to decide on matters of war and peace and mandate international military operations. No other organization has comparable expertise and experience in the area of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and nation building.

The declaration to be adopted at this Forum must make one thing very clear: We need to work together if we are to combat the threat of genocide effectively. The German Government is convinced that the United Nations is uniquely well equipped to undertake this task. Only through the United Nations can we deploy the whole range of preventive and conflict-resolution instruments to effectively defuse situations that could lead to genocide. Instruments that produce results in all fields - human rights, development and social policy, economic policy as well as in security policy and in the area of international law. For this, we need strong United Nations.

Thank you very much.