Late Holocaust survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel speaks about a report he helped prepare discussing the situation in North Korea at the United Nations in New York, Nov. 16, 2006. Photo: Reuters / Chip East / File.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday underlined America’s commitment to preventing mass atrocities abroad as he presented Congress with its annual report under the Elie Wiesel Genocide and Atrocities Prevention Act of 2018.

Named in honor of Elie Wiesel — the Holocaust survivor, acclaimed writer, Nobel Prize winner and human rights activist who passed away in July 2016 — the purpose of the legislation is to “help prevent acts of genocide and other atrocity crimes, which threaten national and international security, by enhancing United States Government capacities to prevent, mitigate, and respond to such crises.”

Pompeo said that the US government had made “significant progress in preventing, mitigating, and responding to atrocities globally.”

“We have enhanced early warning, strengthened civil society and multilateral engagement, and increased the capacity of US government personnel to coordinate, integrate, and institutionalize atrocity prevention across our foreign policy,” he asserted.

Noted the secretary of state: “The Elie Wiesel Act and the US government’s atrocity prevention efforts serve as a model to the world.”

Quoting from the 2017 US National Security Strategy, Pompeo observed that “no nation can unilaterally alleviate all human suffering, but just because we cannot help everyone does not mean that we should stop trying to help anyone.”

He continued: “We will not ignore the suffering of those who experience atrocities. We will continue to promote accountability for perpetrators of genocide and other atrocities.”