A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide. Samantha Power

      Proxmire got strong support from Senator Pell, who, along with seven other senators, prepared a detailed critique of the reservations. “The [sovereignty] package as a whole taints the political and moral prestige that the United States would otherwise gain by ratification of this landmark in international law,” Pell’s report noted. The United States was “defensively embracing a shield that to date has largely been adopted only by countries that may well have reason to fear charges of genocide.”²⁸

      The Senate Foreign Relations Committee split largely along party lines. Nine Republicans and one Democrat voted for the treaty with the reservations; the eight remaining Democrats protested by voting only “present.” One of the few avenues the genocide convention created for enforcement would remain completely off-limits to the United States.