Today the Obama administration announced that a presidential directive will be issued to establish an Atrocities Prevention Board. The board, which will consist of officials from the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon and other agencies, will work to form an early-warning system for potential genocide and other politically driven humanitarian catastrophes.

New America Foundation Fellow Rebecca Hamilton said, “I feel today's announcement is a great first step, provided the Atrocities Prevention Board is empowered to 'mainstream' atrocity prevention throughout the unwieldy bureaucracy that is the U.S. government. Too often these sorts of initiatives end up sidelined by the regional bureaus within the system. But this is something that citizen activists can, and should, work to ensure does not happen here."

"Bigger problems remain, however: Namely, that U.S.-centric solutions to atrocity prevention are out of date in the 21st century. If the true goal is atrocity prevention, rather than alleviating American guilt over Rwanda, the task force must go beyond simply putting the U.S.-centric, 20th century, 'lessons of Rwanda' script into practice."

Hamilton, a human rights lawyer, is the author of Fighting for Darfur -- an authoritative account of the six-year effort to respond to the atrocities in Darfur. She regularly travels to and reports from the region.

More from Rebecca Hamilton on the Atrocities Prevention Board:
http://bechamilton.com/?p=2785

More about Fighting for Darfur: Public Action and the Struggle to Stop Genocide:
http://newamerica.net/publications/books/fighting_for_darfur

Please contact Sabrina Siddiqui, Media Relations Manager, at 202.596.3365 or siddiqui@newamerica.net, for interviews.