ABSTRACT
The efforts to prevent mass atrocity crimes have moved from an academic debate and advocacy action to state-led initiatives. These must address the tension between national, regional and international norms and structures. One of the most recent manifestations of such initiatives is the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes (GAAMAC) which focuses on national architectures. It is also important to amplify this signal when we stand at the crossroads in our efforts at prevention. On the one hand, the international community has advanced norms and standards to prevent genocide and mass atrocities and to protect human lives. On the other hand, there is still a failure to translate these norms and standards into “national” strategies, architectures, or policies of genocide and mass atrocity prevention at the local and state levels. The fact that states recognize genocide and mass atrocity prevention as a collective task does not provide them with definite guidelines for action. When states do not take proactive steps in implementing their own national strategies, the prevention process is seriously deficient. While GAAMAC is still at the nascent stage of development in coalescing multilateral efforts of genocide prevention, R2P, and other relevant fields for prevention and protection, it is playing an important role in streamlining the knowledge, practices, and experiences of atrocity prevention through national dialogues and regional cooperation.
