JBI Human Rights

JBI Launches Publication on Preventing Genocide

Today, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights (JBI) published a major compendium of legal norms for genocide prevention, setting forth a set of risk factors for genocide and the normative basis in international law for those risk factors. 

JBI’s Compilation of Risk Factors and Legal Norms for the Prevention of Genocide was created at the request of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Adviser for the Prevention of Genocide, Dr. Francis M. Deng.  The document sets out the legal framework for and gives substance to the concept of “genocide prevention,” the cornerstone of the Special Adviser’s mandate and a core obligation of the 140 States that have ratified the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

JBI released the Compilation at the United Nations at a launch event featuring a discussion on genocide prevention with expert panelists Dr. Deng, Edward Luck, the Special Adviser to the Secretary General on the Responsibility to Protect, and Felice Gaer, Director of JBI.

Download JBI Compilation Updated

JBI on US Participation at UN Human Rights Council

On April 5, following the March 30 announcement by the United States that it would seek reelection to the UN Human Rights Council when its first term expires in 2012, the Jacob Blaustein Institute for Human Rights (JBI) joined ten prominent NGOs in urging the US to continue to seek improvement in the Council's performance.  In their letter, the groups stressed several important accomplishments at the Council's recent session, along with the importance of eliminating the Council’s disproportionate focus on Israel, increasing attention on other ongoing and emerging human rights priorities, and improving the Council's membership.

To read the letter on US participation at the Human Rights Council, see: Download Joint Statement on US at HRC.