NEW YORK, NEW YORK – In “AIPR: Working to Change How We Prevent Genocide,” Kelly Bonner and Harold Williford outline AIPR’s innovative educational approach to genocide and mass atrocity prevention. The article appeared in the May 2014 edition of the ILSA Quarterly, an academic magazine that features articles written by students, scholars and practitioners on issues of international law and related topics.
“Responses to genocide typically have remained reactive,” write Bonner and Williford, associates in the New York office of White and Case LLP. “AIPR has developed manuals and programs designed to move genocide prevention from crisis management to crisis avoidance.”
The article was based on pro bono work performed by Bonner and Williford for AIPR and interviews with Executive Director Tibi Galis and Director of Policy and Planning Samantha Horn. The authors frame AIPR’s work within Pillar I and II of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) norm, which holds that R2P rests on a state’s ability to protect its population from mass atrocities and emphasizes the international community’s responsibility to assist states in fulfilling this responsibility.
According to Bonner and Williford:
AIPR defines prevention as the sum of actions taken to ensure that all communities participate in society and are not victimized. Key elements of prevention within this framework are good governance, sustainable development, and the rule of law, with a focus on group dynamics to prevent marginalization. Thus, AIPR seeks to expand the role of real prevention and thereby reduce instances where crisis management becomes the only option.
“What makes AIPR’s work so interesting and provocative,” they conclude, “is that it is attempting to spur the development of international law by showing how broad concepts, such as the prohibition against genocide, may best be implemented at regional and national levels.”
To read, “AIPR: Working to Change How We Prevent Genocide,” please click here or the magazine image above and turn to page 45.