Washington, DC – President Obama today announced two important steps his administration will take to prevent mass atrocities: the creation of a standing interagency Atrocities Prevention Board and a proclamation barring serious human rights violators from entering the United States. The President’s action plan elevates mass atrocity and genocide prevention to a “core national security interest and a core moral responsibility in the United States of America.”
“The risk of mass atrocities right now in Syria, Cote d’Ivoire, and the South Kordofan region of Sudan put into sharp relief the need for effective preventative action. Too often, such impending human rights disasters are orphans in the bureaucratic process—everyone cares, but nobody drives action until it’s too late. Today’s announcement promises a new approach: Presidential priority, senior level responsibility, and a direct line to the top for urgent action,” said Human Rights First’s Elisa Massimino. “Successive administrations have recognized that preventing genocide and crimes against humanity is in the national interest of the United States. Finally, there is a concrete effort to put that rhetoric into action and create a standing prevention structure within the U.S. government. We welcome the President’s initiative in making this a priority.”
According to today’s announcement, President Obama is creating an Atrocities Prevention Board, a high-level decision-making structure to bring the full resources of the U.S. government to bear in preventing mass atrocities and to establish authority to marshal inter-agency resources to this end. National Security Advisor Tom Donilon will lead a comprehensive assessment of how the U.S. government can best organize its structure and resources to ensure early and less costly preventive action. Over the next 100 days, Donilon will work with the secretaries of key agencies involved in prevention—the Department of State, the Department of Defense, and the intelligence community, among others– to structure the board.
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