Sixty years ago, on December 9, 1948, the world, through the United Nations, committed itself to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. (Click here to read the Genocide Convention). Yet, as the slaughters in Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, and Cambodia prove, the international community has failed to live up to that promise.

Although the early warning signs for genocide are well known, there is no system in place to predict and prevent mass atrocities. The Genocide Prevention Project seeks to build the public will to call on the international community to take meaningful actions when there are early warning signs of mass-scale atrocity crimes.

Learn more about the definition of genocide and other mass atrocity crimes.

Learn more about past genocides:

• Armenian Genocide, 1915-1923: Atrocities committed against ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire
• Holocaust, 1933-1945: Mass extermination of European Jews by the Nazis
• Cambodian Genocide, 1975-1979: Slaughter of Cambodians and other ethnic, social, and religious groups by the Khmer Rouge
• Bosnia, 1991-1995: Ethnic cleansing and killing of Bosnian Muslims & ethnic Albanians in the former Yugoslavia
• Rwandan Genocide, 1994: Hutu rebels' brutal 100-day slaughter of Tutsi and moderate Hutu
• Genocide in Darfur, 2004-present: Atrocities committed by the government of Sudan and Janjaweed Arab militias against Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit people. Find out how you can take action against this ongoing tragedy.

Read our report identifying 33 countries at risk for genocide and mass atrocity crimes, then take action to prevent further genocide by participating in Genocide Prevention Month.