New York, NY, August 4, 2011 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed an executive order issued by President Barack Obama that enhances America's ability to prevent and respond to mass atrocities.  The presidential directive also bars perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious human rights violators from legally entering the United States.

According to the Aug. 4 Presidential Study Directive/PSD-10, "Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States."

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director and a Holocaust survivor, issued the following statement: 

We are pleased that President Obama has made averting genocide and mass atrocities a core part of American policy and launched a process to assemble a comprehensive set of tools toward that vision.

As a community that experienced first-hand the indifference of a world that failed to avert Hitler's genocidal campaign, we know that if responsible governments had mobilized the full range of diplomatic, economic and humanitarian tools, the outcome could have been very different. 

 

The president's announcement is all the more poignant in the face of an ongoing and violent Syrian crackdown against its own population.           

ADL works at the community and leadership level to promote the lessons of the Holocaust for genocide prevention and the safeguarding of human and civil rights across the globe.  The League provides education curricula on the Holocaust and genocide prevention designed to engage students in humanitarian projects and social activism to instill moral decision-making skills and a lifelong commitment to activism against hatred and inhumanity.