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and churches are holding forums and starting letter-writing campaigns all over the country. National organisations—some faith-based, some African-American, some human rights–related—are running campaigns in every city. Celebrities are getting involved, taking trips and speaking out against the genocide. After all of the hollow pledges of ‘Never Again’ dutifully made by politicians and pundits, networks of concerned Americans and people throughout the world are taking matters into their own hands and demanding policy makers do more to end the crisis in Sudan.
    In the US, one of the best things about this growing movement is that it is non-partisan. So much of the venom that marks Washington these days—the red state/blue state divide—has been set aside. We always hear how politics makes strange bedfellows. How strange it must have been for some of the conservative evangelical members of Congress to find themselves agreeing with some of the most liberal members the Congress has ever seen!
    How the world responds to genocide and other mass atrocity crimes represents one of the greatest moral tests of our lifetime. In the face of genocide halfway around the globe, can citizens—acting individually and in groups—possibly aid in stopping these atrocities?
    Absolutely !
    We continue to be convinced that the growing chorus of outrage, from Florida to California, can stop war crimes and reduce the cries of agony in places such as Darfur. World powers can take a leading role in stopping atrocities, in most cases without putting forces on the ground in large numbers. However, the only means by which US policy can change, and thus the only way mass atrocity crimes can end, is if citizens raise their voices loud enough to get the attention of politicians and force our governments to change their policy.
    To encourage and embolden you, our readers, to join in this movement to bring an end to genocide around the world, we offer Six Strategies for Effective Change that you as an individual can employ to influence public policy and help save hundreds of thousands of lives:

    - Raise awareness
    - Raise funds
    - Write letters
    - Call for divestment
    - Join an organisation
    - Lobby the government

    Ultimately, this book is about giving meaning to ‘Never Again’. In short, this is a handbook for everyone who thinks that one person cannot make a difference, for those who feel that what happens half a world away is not their responsibility, and for everyone who cares but doesn’t know where to start making a positive difference.
    We want to tell that story.
    First, though, in the interest of full disclosure and since it is, after all, our book, we will tell you our stories ...

    [ 1 ] Paul was the manager of a hotel in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. In 1994, an extremist government set in motion a plan to exterminate Rwandans who were ethnically Tutsi and non-Tutsis who sympathised with them. Paul was a member of Rwanda’s other main ethnic group, the Hutu. When genocide consumed Rwanda in 1994, Paul protected more than 1,000 Rwandans from near certain extermination at the hands of extremist Hutu militias. Hotel Rwanda tells his courageous story.
    [ 2 ] Throughout this book, we will use the phrases crimes against humanity and mass atrocity crimes interchangeably, treating genocide as one particular extreme manifestation of such crimes. Whether the crimes against humanity committed in Darfur should be regarded as genocide has been the subject of some debate. A United Nations Commission of Inquiry and several reputable research and advocacy organisations—including the International Crisis Group, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty International—do not use this description. They have a number of good arguments, perhaps best summed up by Gareth Evans, the President and CEO of the International Crisis Group and member of the UN Advisory Panel on Genocide Prevention, who argues that, here, as in a number of other cases, use of the term