Both government and rebel forces have committed atrocity crimes.

The police atrocity was caught on camera and uploaded to the Dianuke.org site.

She is now ten (right) and has no memory at all of the atrocity

The visual politics of atrocity and terror is only as strong as we imagine it.

Ironically, the judge's visit comes as Belgium's anti atrocity law is under legal and political attack.

There is the humanitarian mission to protect civilian populations in Iraq and Syria from mass atrocity crimes.

The moral argument that the veto should not be used in cases of mass atrocity crimes is overwhelming.

We went back to Beslan to find some of the victims who cheated death in the classroom atrocity

As ever, the unpredictable a terrorist atrocity or a rash decision by a national leader will take its toll.

But the one who exposed the atrocity she can be presented as a traitor and sent for life imprisonment.

NEW YORK One of the worst atrocity crime stories of recent decades has barely registered in the world s collective conscience.

But memories of atrocity never seem to fade, as the government fanned anti Japanese riots now taking place in China remind us.

The consolation is that trying to rely on such an escape clause in most atrocity cases would not pass the laugh test.

There is a wreath here from the Japanese Consulate in Shenyang, and the Japanese government has officially acknowledged this (atrocity) took place.

And the primary emphasis of the entire R2P enterprise should continue to be prevention of mass atrocity crimes both their occurrence and their recurrence.

But, on the issue of mass atrocity crimes where the international community has long had good reason for shame real optimism is now justified.

There is a desperate need to re establish consensus on how to address atrocity crimes so extreme that they may require a military response.

Ten years on, we went back to Beslan in southern Russia to find some of the victims who cheated death in the classroom atrocity.

In terms of getting serious about saying never again to mass atrocity crimes, that is about as positive a development as anyone could hope for.

In effect, Suharto s visual politics of atrocity and terror created a new reality from the violence and terror associated with the demise of the old.

Consider the recent scandal surrounding atrocity photos taken by US soldiers in Afghanistan, which are now available on news outlets, including Al Jazeera, around the globe.

One response is that it is almost impossible to find any such genuinely high minded rationale for any veto ever cast in a mass atrocity situation.

And worst of all is to be perceived as being soft on those who, like Egypt s current military rulers, commit mass atrocity crimes against their own citizens.

Advocates of the French position want these countries to forswear their veto when a clear majority supports proposed action to mitigate the risk of a mass atrocity crime.

Moreover, the UN should not only condemn, but without further delay put a stop to today s greatest atrocity the regime s obstruction of foreign assistance to victims of the cyclone.

There can be no better demonstration of good international citizenship than a country s willingness to act when it has the capacity to prevent or avert a mass atrocity crime.

Nevertheless, the allies thought that the Nazi project of exterminating an entire people called for an entirely new legal approach, to ensure that such an atrocity would never happen again.

Taken together, they offer reason for confidence that it may be possible to recreate international consensus, so long missing in Syria, about how to deal with the hardest mass atrocity cases.

But mass atrocity crimes did happen in Sri Lanka, there was moral default all around, and if we do not learn from this past, we will indeed be condemned to repeat it.

Belgium thus looks like the only place where Habré's victims may get their day in court. Ironically, the judge's visit comes as Belgium's anti atrocity law is under legal and political attack.

And, despite the United Nations Security Council s paralysis over Syria, UN General Assembly member states made clear their continuing overwhelming acceptance of the responsibility to protect those at risk of mass atrocity crimes.

PARIS Back in 2001, France floated a proposal that the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (P5) should voluntarily refrain from using their veto power when dealing with mass atrocity crimes.

BEIJING Would China ever be willing to host an international policy discussion about the conditions that would legitimize invading another country to stop genocide or other mass atrocity crimes from being committed within its borders?

The United States action is completely consistent with the principles of the international responsibility to protect (R2P) people at risk of mass atrocity crimes, which was embraced unanimously by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005.

In 2005, on the UN s 60th anniversary, the General Assembly, convening at head of state and government level, unanimously endorsed the concept of states responsibility to protect populations at risk of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes.

It is too late now for non military tools of coercion to have much effect, although Security Council threats of International Criminal Court prosecution for atrocity crimes including any use of chemical weapons must remain on the table .

Underlying this argument is the idea that the attack was an explicitly religious act carried out by an enemy faith, whose believers even those who denounced the atrocity are tainted and deserve to have their constitutional rights restricted.

But everyone understands that the alternative to Security Council cooperation is a return to the bad old days of Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Kosovo either total inaction in the face of mass atrocity crimes, or action outlawed by the UN Charter.

No state that aspires to win the support or cooperation of others can afford to be seen to be comfortable with unambiguous double standards. And worst of all is to be perceived as being soft on those who, like Egypt s current military rulers, commit mass atrocity crimes against their own citizens.

Renewed consensus on how to implement R2P in hard cases may come too late to help in Syria. But everyone understands that the alternative to Security Council cooperation is a return to the bad old days of Rwanda, Srebrenica, and Kosovo either total inaction in the face of mass atrocity crimes, or action outlawed by the UN Charter.

I and many others hailed the agreement to intervene in Libya as the coming of age of the responsibility to protect ( R2P ) principle, unanimously embraced by the world s governments in 2005. Its core idea countering centuries of treating sovereignty almost as a license to kill is that states must protect their own people from genocide and other mass atrocity crimes.