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President Obama to Launch First-ever Atrocities Prevention Board – Stay Tuned for Live Updates

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President Obama to Launch First-ever Atrocities Prevention Board – Stay Tuned for Live Updates

Posted by Annie Callaway on April 23, 2012

President Obama to Launch First-ever Atrocities Prevention Board – Stay Tuned for Live Updates

Good morning! Lauren Clyne Medley, Enough Project's Online Engagement Manager, is live-blogging President Obama's announcement of the launch of the first-ever Atrocities Prevention Board.

The announcement is today ay 9:45 a.m., from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.

You can follow this blog post for updates, or follow us on twitter, @enoughproject. You can also watch President Obama's speech here on the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum's website.

10:36 AM:
President Obama's speech has concluded.

 

10:23 AM
@EnoughProject: RT @WHLive: President Obama: "National sovereignty is never a license to slaughter your people"

 

10:21 AM
@EnoughProject: President 's mass atrocities board will convene for the first time today at the .

 

10:16 AM
@EnoughProject: President just announced that U.S. advisers will continue their efforts to bring and the to justice.

 

10:15 AM
@EnoughProject: RT @RaiseHope4Congo: Preventing genocide and mass atrocities is a core national security and moral responsibility

 

10:14 AM
@EnoughProject: "The presidents of and must be willing to negotiate." – President

 

10:12 AM
@EnoughProject: "Preventing genocide is an achievable goal, but it is one that starts from the bottom up." – President

 

10:07 AM
@EnoughProject: "Awareness without action changes nothing. is a challenge to us all." – President

 

10:05 AM
@EnoughProject: "That's why we're here. Not simply to remember but to speak." – President

 

9:54 AM
@EnoughProject: RT @sturm: If USHMM link not working for 's speech at the , watch on .

 

9:51 AM
@EnoughProject: Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel is introducing President at the .

 

9:45 AM
@EnoughProject: Watch right now: President 's speech at the .

 

9:21 AM
@EnoughProject: In 25 mins, watch President 's speech at the .

 

This morning, President Barack Obama will be speaking at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, marking the annual U.S. commemoration of the Holocaust. As part of this year’s tribute, the president will also be announcing his administration’s plans for the formation of an interagency Atrocities Prevention Board. In an effort to fulfill the pledge of “never again,” the APB will be charged with setting up better early warning systems for detecting mass atrocities around the globe and creating cooperative, comprehensive strategies for responding to these signals in order to intervene and stop the atrocities before they occur.

In a complementary event to President Obama’s address, Samantha Power, special assistant to the president and senior director of multilateral affairs for the National Security Council, will also be speaking at the White House on Monday afternoon.

Last August, Obama announced a Presidential Studies Directive for the establishment of the Atrocities Prevention Board. Since then, the National Security Council has been conducting an interagency review process to determine operational protocols for developing the APB, the results of which will be revealed as the president discusses the future of the board on Monday.

The mandate for the APB is to utilize civilian tools such as diplomacy and development to improve the government’s ability to detect and respond to early signs of mass atrocities. After the Holocaust, the U.S. pledged to never again stand by and watch acts of genocide being carried out, but we have struggled to develop an effective strategy for fulfilling this promise. The Rwandan genocide in 1994, Bosnia in 1995, Darfur in the early 2000s, and now the unfolding apparent ethnic cleansing in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan are all evidence of the international community’s failure to properly detect and respond to mass atrocities. By consulting with civil society organizations, the APB will support multilateral conflict prevention, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding capacities; improve rule of law and civilian security; and integrate genocide prevention and longer-term conflict prevention.

The launch of the Atrocities Prevention Board is highly anticipated by many humanitarian NGOs and civil society organizations. If implemented well, it could prove an effective approach for U.S. foreign policy strategy that focuses on long term solutions to unstable situations, rather than hastily thrown-together band-aid responses once they combust and result in a huge loss of life and livelihood.

Enough Project staff members will be live-tweeting and blogging from both of today’s events. Stay tuned to this page for real-time updates on the Obama administration’s plan for fulfilling its pledge of “never again.”

Photo: President Obama (AP)