A 12-Point Genocide Prevention Agenda for U.S. Presidential Candidates

The United States exhibits many red flags for genocidal processes, including extreme political divisiveness, institutional ossification and breakdown, political corruption, dependence on special interests, a highly militarized security sector, and widespread pessimism as well as disengagement from a political system that is increasingly unresponsive to the needs of ordinary people.

These red flags have accelerated the public scapegoating of marginalized groups for the complex problems faced by Americans (in particular, undocumented and transgender persons), the normalization of violence (including violent speech and imagery in political discourse), the rejection of the values enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and the embrace of authoritarian ideas and candidates.

The Lemkin Institute is deeply concerned by the devaluation of life in the United States.

The Lemkin Institute’s 12-point Genocide Prevention Agenda is meant to help candidates and parties address genocidal red flags in an effort to set the country on a more positive and secure path.

We remind everyone that there is no justification for genocide and that genocide brings only suffering to victims as well as to perpetrators, bystanders, and witneses. It is never in the interest of a state to commit genocide domestically, to countenance the rise of genocidal ideologies and groups, or to aid, abet, condone, or give diplomatic cover to genocide overseas.

To strengthen genocide prevention capacity in the United States, candidates and parties should:

1. Officially recognize that genocide prevention is in the national security interest of the United States and the American people.

2. Pledge to create and fund a National Mechanism for Genocide Prevention to (1) train government officials at the local, state, and national levels, (2) study red flags for genocide that are present in the U.S., and (3) develop smart strategies for addressing the structural and systemic roots of these red flags.

3. Develop a national training initiative for state security agents, including local, state, and federal police forces as well as ICE and CBP, that emphasizes civic responsibilities, public accountability, transparency, de-escalation, and demilitarization. Such a training initiative should be undertaken alongside an institutional redefinition of the identity and the mandate of these entities.

4. Challenge the centrality of military spending, private weapons manufacturers, and war to our body politic, emphasizing instead the strength in building peace at home and abroad.

5. Publicly disavow words, concepts, themes, and frameworks that scapegoat and/or criminalize certain groups of people for the complex problems and challenges faced by the United States and explain clearly to the American people the real reasons for their struggles.

6. Commit to a “National Dialogue on the History of Slavery and Manifest Destiny” with two primary goals: (1) the transformation of U.S. society away from racialized understandings of and models for power and (2) the development of concrete projects and policies to address the enduring impacts of this history on affected populations.

7. Embrace human-centered economic policies that dramatically advance the wellbeing and security of all Americans, with a special focus on solving the longstanding problems of rural and urban poverty, homelessness, addiction, loneliness, domestic violence, and police brutality.

8. Support families of all kinds, affirming the importance of communal bonds to social cohesion and individual wellbeing.

9. Vow to protect freedom of speech, expression, and assembly -- as enshrined in the U.S. Constitution -- and publicly recognize the importance of these freedoms to democratic institutions as well as to genocide prevention.

10. Agree to adhere to U.S. laws regarding military support for foreign countries.

11. Pursue a diversified foreign policy in the Middle East and beyond that shifts the U.S. away from its current dependence on a few key allies – who are granted impunity to pursue expansionist projects and commit mass atrocities – and towards an inclusive, just, and broad-based foreign policy strategy that encourages greater comity between nations.

12. Express support for ratifying the Rome Statute and becoming a member of the International Criminal Court.