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Edmonton prof to lead fight against genocide
University of Alberta's W. Andy Knight welcomed today by UN's secretary general

By Duncan Thorne, edmontonjournal.com
February 14, 2008

EDMONTON - United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon welcomed an Edmonton armed-conflict expert today as executive director of a new centre dedicated to reducing genocide and other horrors.

W. Andy Knight, a University of Alberta political scientist, said he is daunted by his task at the New York-based Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect.

"It is a big honour," Knight said when reached by phone while awaiting his formal introduction in a ceremony at the UN.

The centre has UN support but will work independently, doing research and lobbying at senior government levels, he said.

Knight, 52, has long researched ways to protect innocent people who are at risk in conflicts, and has received a series of awards. One of his recent projects focuses on children in armed conflict.

He said the centre is deliberately independent of the UN because the tasks it will handle are so sensitive. "They don't want to implicate the UN in some of this work.

"For much of it of course we will try to get countries to embrace the concept of responsibility to protect," he said. "This is a concept that's pretty controversial in some countries. Particularly in developing countries they are concerned that this could be used as a means of allowing big countries to intervene in their internal affairs."

The concept of responsibility to protect came from a world summit in 2005. The idea is that countries have the main responsibility to protect their own people from atrocities but that the broader international community should help.

The centre has financial support from seven countries, including genocide-ravaged Rwanda, and Canada.

Canada should itself be doing more to tackle conflicts in such countries as Sudan and Darfur, Knight said.

"We've put a lot of energy into Afghanistan, which is good. But there are still lots of conflicts out there that need to be addressed. Canada has the potential to do a lot more in those areas."

The centre's patrons include Romeo Dallaire, who commanded the UN force in Rwanda during that country's genocide, former Canadian foreign minister Lloyd Axworthy, former UN secretary general Kofi Annan and Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu, who headed the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

The centre is an initiative of five international non-governmental organizations, including Human Rights Watch, the International Crisis Group and Oxfam International.

Knight, originally from Barbados,  came to Canada in 1982. He has been at the U of A for 10 years.

His new job is a two-year renewable contract. For now he is on a leave of absence from the university.

"It is a big challenging, daunting proposition to head up a centre like this," he said. "The weight of the responsibility is enormous.

"We're talking about trying to save innocent people from being slaughtered in genocidal attacks, mass slaughter, crimes against humanity."

dthorne@thejournal.canwest.com

© Edmonton Journal 2008

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