U.S. Finally Ratifies UN Genocide Convention
The United Nations had adopted the Genocide Convention, officially the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, on December 9, 1948.
The United States finally ratified the Convention on this day, 40 years after the UN adopted it.
In an unprecedented campaign in the history of the Senate, Senator William Proxmire (D–Wisconsin) delivered over 3,000 speeches urging ratification, speaking every day the Senate was in session between 1967 and 1986 (see, for example, May 24, 1977).
Read the Genocide Convention: http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/res/96%28I%29
Learn more at Genocide Watch: http://www.genocidewatch.org/genocide/whatisit.html
Learn more: Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide (2002)