The prevention of a genocide can be a tricky thing, mainly because so many factors are included in a genocide, how they start and how do we determine when something is a genocide. The first modem genocide is to most historians the Armenian genocide. The Armenian genocide is what we would in a modern sense call a genocide and before 1943 there was no term for the word for genocide and the term was coined by a Polish lawyer called Raphael Lemkin.
Another important figure is William Proxmire, pictured here, a long-serving U.S. senator (1957-1989) for Wisconsin who gave speeches every day from 1967-1986 telling Congress of the necessity of ratifying the "The Convention on the Prevention of the Crime of Genocide." For twenty years he gave speeches on the topic, a total of over 3,000 speeches. Proxmire for twenty years tried to help prevent the next genocide.

There are many components to a genocide such as radical governments and leaders, and a general atmosphere of hate towards one group of people. Genocides take a lot of planning and resources, and being able to spot these potential genocides is the most important part of prevention. However, what if it is too late and a genocide is already taking place? Intervention may be the only answer to that, if a genocide is not stopped or intervened in the total annihilation of a group or multiple groups may be the result. Finally, another way to prevent genocides is to have a post-genocide rebuilding of communities and countries such as in Rwanda after the genocide. Justice for the victims and the prosecution of perpetrators is also highly important. If this is not done a possible second genocide may take place and those who died will have lost their lives in vain.

Prevention of genocide is everyone's job: to see the conditions of genocide and to never forget those who perished in past genocides. If a genocide is forgotten then it is as bad as the genocide itself, allowing those who died their due justice. During many of the genocides during the last century, there were those who raised the alarm of an impending genocide, however, the international community and even those in the target group believed that it would not happen or if it did that it would not be as severe. During the Rwandan genocide, there were many daily reports of what was going on in the country, but the international community was slow to act and thus in a matter of months thousands to millions were killed. Genocide is a terrible thing and it is the job of everyone in the world to help prevent it and to stop it if it is happening. Genocide can happen anywhere to anyone no matter where they live.

Text by Alexander Kuan