http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 328 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 8 / 2016 nuary 2015. On this occasion, the Spanish delegate spoke about the first pillar of the responsibility to protect and the importance of early action for the prevention of ar-med conflicts32. Another example was on the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genoci-de. Following the Russian veto on a motion for resolution on the Srebrenica massacre, Spain reiterated the importance of prevention and the responsible use of the veto in the Security Council, affirming that: «(…) one of the main responsibilities of the United Nations and of this Security Council is the prevention of atrocity crimes such as those committed in Srebrenica two decades ago. Vetoing this type of initiative implies a major setback to the efforts made by this organisation to advance the Responsibility to Protect our citizens, as well as the efforts made in advancing the limitation on the use of veto in the case of atrocity crimes»33. More recently, on the 10 December 2015, an important debate took place in the Security Council on the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. Despite China’s opposition to this body analysing the human rights situation in North Korea, the president of the Security Council put the holding of this debate to a procedural vote. With the sup-port of nine members of the Security Council, the debate was able to be held. The Human Rights Council, in its report of February 2014, had determined that the government of the DPRK was committing crimes against humanity and called upon the international com-munity to shoulder its responsibility to protect the people of Korea against these crimes34. In addition, on the 8 September, the report of the Special Rapporteur was transmitted to the General Assembly, and the Special Rapporteur called upon the plenary body to: «a) Reiterate its condemnation of the … systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights committed by the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea; b) Reaffirm the responsibility of the international community to protect the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and people abroad from crimes against humanity, in view of the manifest failure of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to protect its own population from such crimes»35. 32 The Spanish representative stated that «(…) further evidence that the maintenance of interna-tional peace and security requires inclusive instruments that contribute to preventing the outbreak of conflicts is the responsibility that all governments have to protect their citizens to the degree that such a safeguard, in the face of potential mass crimes, means taking early action measures, of which inclu-sive development is a very important one», S/PV.7540, 19 January 2015, Maintenance of International Peace and Security. Inclusive Development for the Maintenance of International Peace and Security. 33 Intervention of the representative of Spain at the Security Council on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide, 7 July 2015, <http://www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/es/PoliticaExteriorCooperacion/CSNU2015-2016/Actualidad/Docu-ments/ 150707%20Elementos%20de%20intervencion%20BiH.pdf>, Consulted: 8 January 2016. 34 A/HRC/25/63, 7 February 2014, Human Rights Council, Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. 35 A/70/362, 8 September 2015, Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
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