Last month marked 50 years since the United Nations signed the Genocide Convention, passed in the wake of World War II's devastating Holocaust.
Genocide is the effort to exterminate an entire race or group of people.
With the Genocide Convention, this became a crime under international law. As we look back on these 50 years and the tragedies of Cambodia, Bosnia and Rwanda, it is obvious that the Genocide Convention has not accomplished what it was intended to. In reality, the Genocide Convention is little more than words on paper, a statement of an ideal. It merely provides the opportunity for governments to do the right thing. There are no meaningful enforcement mechanisms, or methods to stop genocide once it is in progress.