The role of minority rights protection in promoting stability and conflict prevention 2011, para. 68
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In the 2005 World Summit Outcome, States Members of the United Nations conceptualized a principle that is of prime importance to the protection of minorities: the responsibility to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity - "the responsibility to protect". This concept recognizes the duty of the international community to intervene to protect populations when their own Governments cannot or lack the will to do so. It prioritizes above all the use of appropriate diplomatic, humanitarian and other peaceful means, before legitimate force is contemplated. The focus of the institutional mechanisms that are being developed to implement the concept of the responsibility to protect will be limited to specific crimes. A broader focus on minority rights protections as a tool for protection from conflict will need to be the task of other mechanisms.