Remembering the grim events of the Holocaust, the United States of America today expressed commitment in taking concrete steps to prevent mass atrocities, protect civilians, and ensure that we hold the perpetrators of atrocities accountable.
In her remarks today at DC, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in the Presidential Study Directive-10, released in August2011, stated that “preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States.”
She stresses that as President Obama has outlined, the administration has led the international effort to bring pressure to bear on the Qhadafi and Asad regimes, supported diplomacy to end the crisis in Sudan, and is supporting efforts to track down Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the Lord’s Resistance Army in Central Africa.
“But we are not just working to stop atrocities today.” – Ms. Clinton
The United States is taking a number of steps to strengthen the U.S. government’s capacity to prevent them in the future – including creating an Atrocities Prevention Board, enhancing the collection and analysis of intelligence, and expanding our multilateral diplomatic efforts.
And while the US pledges to do everything it can, preventing mass atrocities is a responsibility that the United States and all peoples and countries around the world share, Ms. Clinton emphasized.
“We must all commit to work together to turn our promise of “never again” into a reality.” – Ms. Clinton
On August 2011, President Obama announced a bold initiative to strengthen the U.S. government’s ability to respond to and prevent genocide and mass atrocities worldwide.
The measures announced would designate and coordinate the U.S. government bodies that identify emerging risks of mass atrocities and genocide, and seek to prevent their commission. An interagency Atrocity Prevention Board will be created to coordinate those agencies’ future efforts.
President Obama expanded the grounds for denying entry into the U.S. to individuals who have committed serious human rights violations, including war crimes and crimes against humanity.
In addition, the United Nations asserts that that widespread education through the media, special events and other initiatives that provide information on the history and lessons of the Holocaust is essential to help prevent future genocides and mass atrocities.
Of the nine million Jews who had resided in Europe before the Holocaust, approximately two-thirds perished. In particular, over one million Jewish children were killed in the Holocaust, as were approximately two million Jewish women and three million Jewish men.
