Date:  Wednesday, 26 October 2022
Time: 12:00 p.m. EDT
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"Race" and Racism: Roots of Atrocity Crimes

What do we mean when we talk about “race”, and what does this have to do with history? Why are “race'” and racism seen as root causes of atrocity crimes? How did pseudo-scientific “race theory” and racism underpin the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans, the Holocaust and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda? 

The panel examines the relationship of so-called “race theory” and racism to the committing of atrocity crimes and genocide. The panel considers how the belief in “race” shaped the history of the transatlantic slave trade, the Holocaust, and the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda and its lasting legacy. 

 Date: Thursday, 16 June 2022
Time: 9:00 a.m. EDT
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Hate speech explainer video

Fighting Hate Speech: Global Perspectives
 

How can universities and colleges around the world work together to combat hate speech? What is their contribution to this area? What role will academia play in helping to address the issue of hate speech?
This event highlights how universities are countering hate speech on campuses and beyond through teaching, research, and community engagement. The panel discusses what their institutions are doing to create awareness and change policies. The panel discusses the role of academia to address the challenges brought about by hate speech.

 Date: Friday, 1 October 2021
Time: 10:00 a.m. EDT
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Making learners more resilient to disinformation, “fake news” and conspiracy theories

What danger do disinformation, "fake news", and conspiracy theories pose to society? How do they encourage and spread hate speech? What is the connection between disinformation and the perpetration of hate crimes? What measures are available to empower youth to resist disinformation, "fake news" and conspiracy theories?

Disinformation, “fake news" and conspiracy theories spread racism and support supremacist ideology, encouraging hate crimes. Disinformation and fake news related to public health in the context of COVID-19, has proved to be, in some instances, life-threatening, and has encouraged a rise in racist attacks, xenophobia, antisemitism and islamophobia. The panel discussion considers approaches to the “infodemic” and what measures can build the resilience of youth to disinformation, “fake news" and conspiracy theories. The panel explores how Holocaust education and education about the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda can strengthen learners’ understanding of the consequences of disinformation, ‘fake news’ and conspiracy theories going unchallenged, and their ability to recognize and respond to mis- and disinformation. The panel examines the initiatives developed by the United Nations and the work being done in South Africa to build youth resilience. The panel discussion is part of the multi-stakeholder forum on addressing hate speech through education organized by the United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, and UNESCO.

 Date: Tuesday, 22 June 2021
Time: 9:00 a.m. EDT
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Memory at risk: the importance of genocide archives for justice, remembrance, research and education

Archives play a crucial role in genocide remembrance and education and have been essential for legal procedures and conflict transformation processes in the aftermath of genocide. Establishing comprehensive archives in post-genocide societies can be a challenge, as well as ensuring the continuous preservation of artifacts and documents, and their accessibility to the public.

In a context of increasing disinformation, archives as places of authentic historical information, are an important counterbalance to narratives that seek to distort or deny genocidal pasts and form an important basis for informed research and education.

 Date: Thursday, 21 January 2021
Time: 10:00 a.m. EST
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Women and Genocide

 

What has been the impact of genocide on women? How did women respond? To what extent did it matter whether you were a woman? Experts considered these questions.

Speakers included Dr. Sara Cushman, Director, Holocaust Educational Foundation, Northwestern University, who spoke about women during the Holocaust; and Dr. Sarah E. Brown, Executive Director, Center for Holocaust, Human Rights and Genocide Education, Brookdale Community College who spoke about women during the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Ms. Simona Cruciani, Political Affairs Officer, United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect, examined atrocity crimes and gender, and considered this in the light of genocide prevention. Ms. Nanette Braun, Officer-in-Charge, Strategic Communications Division, United Nations Department of Global Communications served as moderator.

E4: Panellists

 Date: Wednesday, 18 November 2020
Time: 9:30 a.m. EST
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Radio and Reconstruction

 

How was radio used to facilitate genocide, and how was the same medium was used in the aftermath, to assist with the reconstitution and tracing of families?

Radio helped to marginalize, dehumanize and demonize the targets of the Nazis during the Holocaust and the victims of the genocidaires in the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda. However, just as radio proved a powerful vehicle to foster and incite hatred, so it has been proved a significant vehicle for reconstruction after atrocity crimes. In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the International Red Cross, the International Tracing Service and radio stations such as the BBC, broadcast lists of names of survivors in the hope that families would be reunited. 49-years after the end of the Second World War, and 3 months after the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda had ended, the BBC launched a radio project to support the people of Rwanda. The first service, BBC Gahuzamiryango – “the unifier of families” broadcast the names of children who were looking for their parents and collected messages from refugees living in camps in Tanzania, DRC and Burundi who were trying to trace their loved ones.

 Date: Thursday, 29 October 2020
Time: 10:00 a.m. EDT
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Educating against Racism


 

How can education and educators challenge racism, prejudice and discrimination - the legacies of histories of oppression, mass atrocities and genocide? How can teachers facilitate difficult conversations about identity, discrimination, racism and prejudice, and remind students of other legacy - the legacy of resistance, solidarity and empathy? "Educating against Racism" will explore these questions.

Following a discussion, the Anne Frank House will lead a workshop, introducing the online resource, Stories that Move – Toolbox against discrimination resource for educators and students. The Stories that Move resource creates spaces for difficult but rewarding conversations. It aims to move young people to empathy for others, to gain new perspectives, and to contribute to change. This presentation will show how visible thinking methods and blended learning can support educators to be inclusive. By using the personal stories of other young people learners are challenged to reflect on the choices they themselves make when faced with inequality and hate. 

 Date: Wednesday, 8 July 202O
Time: 11 a.m. EDT
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Q&A

Museums, Memorials and Memorialization after Atrocity – Communicating a Form of Ongoing Justice?

What role might statues, memorials, museums and memorialization after atrocity crimes, play in furthering the interests of justice?

An expert panel considers whether statues, memorials, museums and acts of memorialization might: a) empower victims and their descendants by serving as concrete expressions of public recognition of the grievous injury done to the victims; b) encourage an understanding of the agency of victims; c) encourage empathy and action to challenge existing inequities; d) counter the tendency to sentimentalize the past and ossify individuals and communities into particular roles.

What is it that a memorial or museum of atrocity crime is hoping to achieve for those injured in the past and their descendants? What of those for whom the history appears to have no immediate connection, and for those who were complicit or who benefitted from the atrocity?