U.S. Backs Implementing U.N. Doctrine Against Genocide

The Wall Street Journal
July 30, 2009. By JOE LAURIA

UNITED NATIONS -- The Obama administration is supporting moves to implement a U.N. doctrine calling for collective military action to halt genocide.

The next step is to see if the countries in favor of implementing the policy will act when a new genocide is brewing if all other diplomatic actions fail. The doctrine is political, not legal: Although these countries have expressed the political will to act, they aren't legally bound to. Read article...

World is Witness

World is Witness - A geoblog that shares stories, photos, and maps from the field to document genocide and related crimes against humanity.

Photo: A Bangladeshi UN transport helicopter takes off from Duru village in Northeastern Congo while a Moroccan soldier secures the field. Michael Graham/USHMM. April, 2009.

Empty Desks in Duru
Duru, Democratic Republic of the Congo
June 24, 2009
Our MI-17 transport helicopter rumbles to life and lifts up from the UN base outside of Dungu, above American-made Humvees parked next to piles of supplies and prefabricated offices squatting alongside the dirt runway. UN staff in blue Kevlar and helmets buckled in next to me put on a jovial air, but there is an undercurrent of tension. We are flying into the heart of Lord’s Resistance Army ’s territory, just a few miles from their former base in Garamba National Park. Read more...


World is Witness, a project of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, bears witness to genocide and related crimes against humanity around the world. Our staff and guest contributors bring you updates from the field, eyewitness testimony, photographs, interactive maps and more. Includes interactive maps with Google Earth.


If you haven't seen this yet, you need to check it out. These stories and entries clearly remind us how important this education is and how much work needs to be done.

Broadening Awareness about Darfur

A critical part of studying the Holocaust is making the connection to current issues such as prejudice, hatred, and contemporary genocide. We received an email last week from an organization in Maine created by survivors from Darfur. From their website:

The Fur Cultural Revival is a non-government, non-profit organization committed to broadening the public’s awareness of genocide in Darfur; serving the needs of the Darfur community residing in the greater Portland area and preserving the Fur tribal culture.

To learn more about the crisis in Darfur and the important work of The Fur Cultural Revival, visit http://sites.google.com/site/furculturalrevivalme/ .

On hate groups: 'You never, never decrease the problem by ignoring it'

KOMO News

SEATTLE -- An organization that tracks hate groups says records show there are more such groups now than ever before.

In an effort to help determine why, KOMO News got an exclusive interview with a member of the Aryan Nations and with those determined to stop the hate....

Hate groups up 50 percent
The Southern Poverty Law Center tracks racial hatred. In the last eight years, the center reports the number of hate groups has gone up 50 percent. They count 962 -- the most ever on record.

Read article

Note - the comments that follow the article are equally interesting...

Al-Bashir prosecutor pushes for genocide charge

(CNN) -- The chief prosecutor at the International Criminal Court says he has evidence to prove Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir is guilty of genocide, even though he is not charged with the crime.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo spoke to CNN on Wednesday, two days after he appealed to the court to add genocide to the existing arrest warrant for al-Bashir.

The court issued the warrant in March on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity relating to his five-year campaign of violence in western Sudan's Darfur region.

"The evidence shows it is genocide," Moreno-Ocampo said.

The warrant was the first one ever issued for a sitting head of state by the world's only permanent war crimes tribunal, based at The Hague in the Netherlands.... read article.

Confronting Violence with Knowledge

Holocaust Museum shooting shows need for continued education about the Holocaust

JT News
By Dee Simon and Laurie Warshal Cohen, Co-Executive Directors, Holocaust Center

The recent fatal shooting at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. is a stark reminder that each of us has the responsibility to stand up to prejudice and hate whenever and wherever we encounter it.

Sara J. Bloomfield, Director of the USHMM in Washington, sent out the following statement: “This incident underscores why the Museum is so important. The Holocaust did not begin with mass murder. It began with hate. The Holocaust reminds us of the dangers of indifference and unchecked hate — and that each of us has a responsibility to stand up to it.”

As individuals and as a community, we search again for answers and solutions to this kind of needless violence.

The Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center is working in our region to reach students, teachers and communities with educational programs that focus on the tragic consequences of bigotry, prejudice and hatreds. The center’s mission of teaching and learning for humanity puts it on the front lines of educating our young people. With a multi-pronged approach to Holocaust education, students who study the Holocaust in the context of human rights and genocide learn that hatred and prejudice have tragic consequences. They tell their teachers they will no longer accept bullying in their classes, and that they know the difference one person can make:

“After studying the Holocaust and hearing a speaker, I feel it is my job to help others to be tolerant towards different races and cultures. I can’t just let things happen anymore,” says one Lynnwood High School student.

As a small non-profit, the center dedicates its resources to programs that include: Holocaust teaching trunks, survivor presentations to classes, teacher training, traveling exhibits, classroom book sets, community programs, and an extensive multi-media library of artifacts, testimonies and other Holocaust materials. With these programs, we reached 40,000 students, teachers and community members this year.

These acts of violence, especially toward Jewish institutions, are a challenge to all of us. We grieve Stephen Tyrone Johns, who lost his life in Washington D.C. At the Holocaust Center, we confront this challenge through education. This is what the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has stood for since it opened its doors, and this is the mission of our local center in Seattle.