WARSAW 's President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, acting as special envoy of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan for reform of the United Nations, on Tuesday delivered Annan's message to the Council of Europe summit in the Polish capital.
According to the text of the message released by the Latvian president's press service, Annan calls for supporting his proposal to transform the Commission on Human Rights into a standing Human Rights Council.
The secretary-general also urged other nations "to embrace the concept of the 'responsibility to protect,' as a basis for collective action to prevent and stop instances of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity."
"This is not meant as a way to bypass sovereignty," he underlined, saying that any such action will need to be authorized by the Security Council.
Vike-Freiberga is one of the five special envoys that the UN Secretary-General has appointed to help him with promotion of the reforms within the organization.
