BINGHAMTON, NY – Owen Pell ‘80, a Binghamton University summa cum laude graduate, will present "Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention: New Approaches" at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25, in the Anderson Center’s Casadesus Hall, Fine Arts Building, on campus. Pell will provide a 45-minute talk, followed by a brief question-and-answer session. The presentation is free and open to the public.

"Genocide and mass atrocity have been crimes under international law for decades, yet preventing them has remained elusive, at best. Recently, new approaches have emerged that recognize that these crimes are neither random nor spontaneous, and that true prevention requires something beyond high-level condemnation and state intervention as outbreaks loom or occur," Pell said. "These new approaches see these crimes as byproducts of problems that must be addressed within individual societies by trained government officials dedicated to assessing and responding to the precursors of genocide and mass atrocity crimes before outbreaks occur."

Pell, who majored in political science at Binghamton University and is a partner in the New York office of the international law firm White & Case LLP, is a board member for the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR). After being established overseas in 2005 and officially becoming a non-profit organization in the United States in 2007, the AIPR launched its programs in 2008 with the mission of building a worldwide network of policymakers with the tools and the commitment to prevent genocide.

Pell’s presentation will address how genocide and mass atrocity prevention is developing as a field, focusing on the theory of AIPR’s work, including how we use the power of place at Auschwitz-Birkenau to make genocide issues current and real; how this fits into the Responsibility to Protect as it has evolved at the UN; an overview of how AIPR is training government and military officials; where the gaps in the field remain to be filled; and where corporations fit into the mix, including based on the UN Global Compact and the OECD’s Guides to Corporate Conduct.

For more information, contact bmeyers@binghamton.edu.