Today is the 61st anniversary of the approval of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It’s also the 1st anniversary of the release of the Genocide Prevention Task Force Report – a list of recommendations for the U.S. government and the international community put together by a bipartisan group of experts including Madeline Albright and William Cohen.
Maybe it’s not the most exciting anniversary out there, but it’s a pretty important one that gets surprisingly little coverage, even in international human rights and legal circles (tomorrow’s recognition as International Human Rights Day – the anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 usually gets a lot more play).
Today is a great day to learn more about the Genocide Convention, the history of the term genocide and the story of the man who coined the word.
It’s also a great day to learn more about genocide prevention.
Michelle at Change.org has a post up – “An Odious Scourge: The Challenge of the Genocide Convention” – examining the limitations of the convention in today’s world.
Alex Meixner wrote for Blog for Darfur – “Ending Genocide: An Anniversary and an Opportunity” – about the importance of genocide prevention and what can be done.
And Mike Abramowitz and Sam Bell have a post on Change.org – “Preventing Genocide: A National Security Priority” – highlighting the Task Force recommendations.
All worthwhile reading on what we can only hope is not an empty anniversary.
MHB 