Following the Election...

Post by Leigh Durham

Now that election fervor has settled and President Barack Obama has been elected for a second term, we move forward and hope that our priorities here at OMB become those of the U.S. government: preventing future atrocities and utilizing our resources to put an end to ongoing conflicts. Our friends at STAND sent a post-election open letter to the Commander in Chief, outlining what must be done in order to make mass atrocity prevention a major concern of U.S. foreign policy. Their three major policy recommendations are:

• Expand the Atrocities Prevention Board, an interagency body created to detect and respond to growing threats, and allow for non-governmental actors to advise policy-makers.
• Continue to financially support successful U.S. conflict prevention programs, including U.N. peacekeeping and the State Department’s Complex Crises Fund despite repeated budget cuts on foreign assistance.
• Take a multilateral approach to peacebuilding by including key regional partners to gain a local lens when assessing crises.

Another interesting piece to consider is a report by Freedom House, released earlier this year as the candidates campaigned, titled “Ten Critical Human Rights Challenges for the Next American President.” Throughout the list, there are several points that are specifically relevant to our work, including preventing genocide and mass atrocities and providing access to justice for survivors of sexual and gender-based violence, while ensuring accountability for those who commit these heinous crimes. Also necessary are regulatory measures to see that corporations are not contributing to these conflicts in their operational practices and supply chains, something that is truly critical in the DRC. 

We have great hope for the future and the role an administration can play in protecting the lives of all people, but we will also be keeping in mind that real change often occurs between elections, when the collective voice is too strong to ignore and local communities work together to create their own realities.