Press releaseThursday 8 April 2010
For immediate use
Gordon Brown on reforming the banking system
Gordon Brown MP, Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, tonight spoke about Labour's forthcoming manifesto commitments to encourage responsibility in the banking system. At the live and online event, based on the TED conferences, the first of its kind in a UK General Election, Gordon Brown gave a very personal account of his involvement in handling the global financial crisis to a 300 strong audience including business people, economists and young people. Gordon Brown said:“This year we have seen a welcome reduction in the proportion of revenues global investment banks have paid out in bonuses. But we need to ensure that this is a structural change not a one off response to public pressure.“So I can say that in our manifesto our financial services authority will be given powers to quash those contracts which incentivise reckless risk taking and instability. And if there is evidence to show that constraints on bonuses are being evaded, we will act.”
Ends
Editor's notes:
1. The format of the event is based on the TED events. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design and their conferences see a global figure addresses an audience on an innovative idea.
From the UN News CentreUN Security Council extends terms of judges serving on Rwanda genocide tribunal
UN war crimes tribunals call for more help from Member States in arresting fugitives
Rwandan war crimes suspect sentenced to 6 years imprisonment by UN court
The need to prevent genocide and punish those responsible has been of concern to the international community since the end of the Second World War. Genocide was defined as a crime under international law in the Genocide Convention of 1948 (the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide). The Convention makes it a crime to commit genocide, plan or conspire to commit genocide, incite or cause other people to commit genocide or be complicit or involved in any act of genocide
Today, all governments are bound by this law whether they have signed the Convention or not.Despite the Convention, massive atrocities have occurred since – including the 1994 genocide in Rwanda — which have underscored the international community’s failure to make the prevention of genocide a reality
In response to this collective failure and in an effort to learn from the past, former Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, outlined a five-point action plan for the prevention of genocide in 2004. This included the creation of the position of Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide whose mandate includes acting as an early-warning mechanism regarding potential situations that could result in genocide.
Genocide is not something that happens overnight or without warning. It is, in fact, a deliberate strategy. The effects of genocide are felt beyond the borders of the affected country as it negatively impacts the safety and security of people in neighbouring areas
The impact of genocide on future generations is truly enormous.Today, the effects of the genocide in Rwanda are still felt in many different ways both inside the country and in neighbouring states, including in the eastern regions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, working with other genocide experts, has compiled a list of warning signs that could indicate that a community is at risk for genocide or similar atrocities. It includes:the country has a totalitarian or authoritarian government where only one group controls power
the country is at war or there is a lawless environment in which massacres can take place without being quickly noticed or easily documented
The Rwanda High Commissioner Uk
PREVIOUS YEARSAnnual Commemoration of the Genocide in Rwanda (2009)
Annual Commemoration of the Genocide in Rwanda (2008)
Annual Commemoration of the Genocide in Rwanda (2007)
Website of the 10th Anniversary of the Genocide in Rwanda (2004)
The Tanzania and Kenya High commissioners at the event"Today, we observe the sixteenth commemoration of the genocide in Rwanda. We cherish the memory of more than 800,000 innocent people who lost their lives. Our thoughts are also with the survivors, whose haunting testimony woke us to the reality of a tragedy that was all too preventable."
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon7 April 2010
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon7 April 2010
