During the Rwanda Genocide, Samantha Power tells us that Patricia Schroeder, a Colorado congresswoman explained to reporters that they were “getting hundreds and hundreds of calls about the endangered ape and gorilla population in Rwanda, but nobody is calling about the people.” Up to this point in time there was no “endangered peoples movement”, as Power puts it, and “genocide was not seen as newsworthy”.

Since this period, the American people’s reaction to genocide has increased dramatically, but this movement has been lacking in international support. Governments do not “gravitate to these crimes naturally or easily” so it is up to their people to make it the priority. Power admits that these situations are not simple or completely clear, but strongly states that if we want to bring an end to the world’s worst atrocities it is up to the global community to step up together and make it so.

Samantha Power currently runs the Office of Multilateral Affairs and Human Rights for the National Security Council. She is also the Founding Executive Director of Harvard’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. This video was featured at a TED talk in November 2008.