Download or read book Preventing Genocide and Mass Killing written by William Schabas and published by Minority Rights Group. This book was released on 2006 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The prevention of genocide and mass killing is arguably the greatest moral imperative resting on the United Nations (UN). The Genocide Convention was one of the first human rights instruments to be adopted by the UN, along with the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. However, in the immediate post-Second World War climate, it was assumed that, at least in peacetime, what states did to their own peoples within their own frontiers was largely their own business. There has been considerable progress since then. The Outcome Document adopted at the UN summit in September 2005 underlines the responsibility of the international community to protect threatened populations, a responsibility to be met through peaceful means but also, if these prove inadequate, by taking collective action through the UN Security Council. Further, it reaffirms the principle that protecting minority rights contributes to states' stability and cultural diversity.