ABSTRACT
Typically, striking images of women and children who are fleeing the worst types of violence are coupled with attention-grabbing headlines displayed in the "world" section of established news media outlets. Access to information has not necessarily led to greater calls for action to prevent human rights violations. At the global level, people have made efforts to take up the central issue of protecting civilians from genocide and other mass atrocity crimes. People have numerous human rights and humanitarian legal conventions, including the 1948 Genocide Convention, which, at least in 1948, set out to make the crime of genocide a global concern and one that would compel states to act to prevent. People must be ready to combat the xenophobic and uniformed rhetoric that demonizes ethnic and religious groups, and cultivates an atmosphere of fear and isolation. There is more to the world's stoic lament than the primacy of "national interest".
