GI-Net/SDC's Daniel Sullivan (center); Alex Zucker of Auschwitz Institute (left); Former Hungarian Ambassador Andras Simonyi (right)
Yesterday, GI-Net/SDC Senior Policy Analyst, Daniel Sullivan, delivered a keynote address on genocide prevention at the International Symposium on Cultural Diplomacy.
In his address, Daniel laid out the unique aspects that define the modern era of genocide prevention efforts, highlighting the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) principle, the recommendations of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, and the role of advocacy groups growing out of the Save Darfur Movement. A key theme was the expansion of modern efforts to include “genocide and mass atrocities” and “other crimes” such as the four crimes identified by the R2P concept: genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ethnic cleansing. This follows both the desire to avoid definitional issues that impede timely and effective action and the recognition that the same efforts for early warning, diplomatic intervention, rapid response, and use of force if necessary apply to the protection of civilians in mass atrocity situations that do not fit a particular definition.
The modern era of genocide prevention has also been defined by the emergence of new tools for fighting genocide including justice (in the form of the International Criminal Court), focus on what Human Rights First calls enablers of mass atrocities (such as companies involved in conflict minerals), and non-governmental organizations, whether those providing early warning and preventive measures on the ground or those amplifying the voices of threatened civilians throughout the world.
Seeking to hone the tool of justice, the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, which sponsored the symposium, just launched a new Initiative on the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, seeking to achieve a “fast-track, concrete legal resolution to halting current instances of genocide taking place in conflict zones across the world.” At the same time, groups like GI-Net/SDC continue to hone the tool of advocacy.
As Daniel concluded last night, “Ten years after Rwanda, the world had to ask why genocide was unfolding once again in Darfur. The hope is that with efforts like ICDs initiative and groups like GI-Net/SDC, we will not have to ask the same question again ten years from now.”
A few days ago, New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote a 
