Genocide Prevention: 60 Years of Abject Failure

Genocide is a horrific crime, condemned throughout the world since the Holocaust. But the world still struggles to prevent genocide, even 60 years after passage of the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, writes English professor Eric Reeves, in the Christian Science Monitor. Perpetrators elude punishment and condemnation by escaping media attention or suggesting that their wartime goals did not match official definitions of genocide. The international community has an obligation to act quickly if evidence emerges about massive targeting of any national, ethnical, racial or religious group. “Continuing international acquiescence before genocide is not a matter of an imperfect document but of moral cowardice or a ghastly solipsism,” writes Reeves. Ongoing attacks, rapes and deaths in Darfur offer a glaring example of the international community overlooking genocide. Reeves calls for an end to the veto power held by the five permanent members of the UN Security Council, noting that any one powerful country should not have the ability to buck widespread consensus when it comes to applying the label of genocide. – YaleGlobal