Genocides persist, nearly 70 years after the Holocaust – but there are recognized ways to help prevent them

An Orthodox Jewish man looks at photographs of Jews murdered during the Holocaust at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Israel. David Silverman/Getty Images

The newly formed United Nations passed its first international treaty on Dec. 9, 1948, just three years after the Holocaust ended. The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was designed to prevent genocide from ever happening again.

But governments worldwide currently remain far from the goal of preventing genocide – despite 152 of them eventually signing on to the Genocide Convention.