U.S., Others Take Heat for Opposing U.N. Genocide Agreement.

International charity Oxfam is condemning governments that it claims are blocking efforts to prevent genocide and protect civilians from atrocities such as those seen during the 1994 bloodbath in Rwanda.

The organization is accusing prominent United Nations member states the United States, Brazil, India, and Russia of blocking, or at least giving the cold shoulder to, an emerging international agreement establishing an international duty to head off genocide and protect civilians from ethnic cleansing as seen in the Balkans.

Other governments opposed to the proposed measures, to be discussed at a U.N. summit in New York next month, include Syria, Iran, Cuba, Pakistan, Egypt, and Algeria, according to Oxfam.

Nicola Reindorp, head of Oxfam's New York office stated that

'It is hard to overstate how important this is. In one month's time, the biggest meeting of world leaders in history could endorse a new standard which could help stop a future Rwanda from happening.

We've taken the step of exposing the governments blocking the agreement so people around the world can call on them to change their minds.