US President Barack Obama on May 18 signed an executive order to detect and prevent mass atrocities.
Mr Obama said the prevention of atrocities is a "core national security interest of the United States."
However some human rights groups expressed disappointment at the limitations of the order.
Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman who now heads United to End Genocide, said the Atrocities Prevention Board should have been made permanent years ago — and given significant authority to direct sanctions, USA Today reported.
"They talked about it happening in six months, and it’s been years," he said. "It doesn’t appear — at least from that — that preventing atrocities has been a significant priority of the administration. It’s good that it happened, but it’s very late."
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