Keough School faculty member Ernesto Verdeja, a Kellogg faculty fellow, co-authored an article exploring how the recent resignation of the United Nations special advisor on the prevention of genocide has opened an opportunity for Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to elevate atrocity prevention to priority status.
Two decades after its establishment, The Office of Genocide Prevention and Responsibility to Protect (R2P) has shown elusive progress despite a dramatic shift in the geopolitical landscape. In his research, Verdeja found that the R2P Office has not been a central actor in the UN’s global atrocity prevention efforts during a time marked by a worsening geopolitical climate with rising authoritarianism and grave human rights violations at the forefront.
Although immense support for R2P has been shown throughout the UN, the Joint Office has become increasingly marginalized. This has led to questions on whether the endorsement of member states for atrocity prevention reflects genuine commitment or merely rhetorical posturing.
Verdeja is an associate professor of peace studies and global politics at the Keough School’s Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies. His research focuses on a range of topics including the cause, prevention and early warning signs of genocide and mass atrocities; social media disinformation and violence; transitional justice; and political reconciliation. He is the executive director of the Institute for the Study of Genocide, a non-profit founded to promote research and policy analysis on the causes and prevention of genocide and political violence.