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Interview with Tibi Galis, Director of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation is holding a conference in Buenos Aires next week from April 12-14. The conference, titled ‘Memory, Justice, Truth and Reparations as Tools for Genocide Prevention’, has been co-organized by the government of Argentina. It will host government officials and policymakers from 40 nations. I spoke today with AIPR’s Director, Tibi Galis:

What is your organization’s mission and what work do you do to try to achieve it?

The AIPR, based in New York, works to prevent genocide by building a worldwide network of policymakers with the tools and the commitment to stop genocide before it occurs. We do this through our Raphael Lemkin Seminars on Genocide Prevention, bringing together government policymakers and NGO advocates with the world’s leading researchers and policy practitioners with firsthand experience of genocide for a week of lectures, seminars, discussions, and personal sharing. Seminars are held in the symbolic location of Auschwitz, Poland, and are endorsed by the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide.

Participants emerge from our seminars with a renewed commitment to preventing genocide and increased knowledge of the policy tools available, both domestically and internationally. More important for the long term, they become members of a growing community of genocide-sensitive policymakers who can help and support one another in their daily work on the front lines of conflict prevention. Until now, this sort of community has functioned at the grassroots level, but not at the policy level.

This April’s unprecedented conference in Buenos Aires is part of our ongoing effort to expand this community, which ultimately saves lives.

What does the AIPR aim to accomplish with next week’s conference?

Twice a year the Auschwitz Institute trains government policymakers and human rights activists from all over the world in genocide prevention at our campus in Auschwitz, Poland. Once per year we hold a conference for our program’s alums to get together, collaborate, and explore a topic in depth that wasn’t covered in our training. We hope these meetings serve as a catalyst for governments and activists to actively engage in genocide prevention. This year our focus is on transitional justice and we will be bringing in leading researchers and academics in the field to take part in our panels.

We are also presenting our Raphael Lemkin Award to two outstanding individuals in the genocide prevention community – Juan Mendez and Carla Del Ponte. Juan Mendez has served as the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide to the U.N. Secretary General and is the current President Emeritus of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Carla Del Ponte is the former Chief Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

What is the significance of the location of the conference?

Argentina has been one of our earliest partners. The government has been very receptive and supportive since our inception. Argentina was also one of the earliest adopters of a transitional justice process. Since the end of military rule in the 1980s the Argentine government has taken a succession of steps toward uncovering the truth about crimes committed by the former regime and bringing perpetrators to justice. Another unique aspect of Argentina’s government is their fully integrated human rights control process. They have officials serving as point persons for human rights in most ministries, and have incorporated human rights considerations as part of their policy process.

What policy changes would the AIPR like to see take place in the furtherance of genocide prevention?

The AIPR does not recommend specific policies to be adapted at a broad level – the challenges are too different. The AIPR hopes to serve as a catalyst to inspire change and provide resources for local responses that are community-specific. We try to work with governments to help them find courses of action that will work for them. Last week we signed our first agreement with Sierra Leone to train officials on an ongoing basis. Genocide prevention is a process, and we facilitate that process.

That said, we would like to see governments adopt approaches similar to Argentina’s, where they would establish genocide prevention officers in each ministry and department and include consideration for genocide prevention in policy decisions at all levels.

 

Author

Brandon Henander

Brandon lives in Chicago and works as a Project Coordinator for Illinois Legal Aid Online. He has a LL.M. in International Law and International Relations from Flinders University in Adelaide. Brandon has worked as a lobbyist for Amnesty International Australia and as an intern for U.S. Congressman Dave Loebsack. He also holds a B.A. in Political Science, Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Iowa. His interests include American and Asian politics, human rights, war crimes and the International Criminal Court.