Local
Initiatives Updates -
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IBUTSA: Remembering
Rwanda
June 25-27, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto
“Ibutsa: Remembering Rwanda” is sponsored by the generous support of Harbourfront Centre and the Canadian Auto Workers, as well as Massey College, St. Michael’s Hospital, two anonymous Canadian donors, personal donations, and the work of the volunteer Ibutsa: Remembering Rwanda committee. All proceeds from “Ibutsa: Remembering Rwanda” will go to the Canadian charity Hope for Rwanda’s Children Fund.
This
is a major event featuring several prominent Canadians (Ken Wiwa, Stephen
Lewis) panel discussions, films Rwandan music, song and dance and more!
Gerry Kaplan
serves as host for an opening event featuring survivors’ testimony, renowned
Rwandan poet Bernadette Kabango and the Rwandan Chorus
Click here for full event details
For full details of this event visit: http://www.rememberingrwanda.com/
On April 20 at 7:00pm the United Nation Association - National Capital Area ( unanca.org ) hosts a speach by Fred O. Oladeinde, President of the Foundation for the Democracy in Africa (FDA www.democracy-africa.org.) commemorating the ten-year anniversary of the Rwanda genocide on Tuesday, April 20 at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs (1957 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20052). $5 for nonmembers.For information log on to For more information log on to www.unanca.org
Click here for PDF of updated event information
"Deterring
Future Genocides: The International Criminal Court". fact sheet
created by the CICC (Coalition for the International Criminal Court)
secretariat
The fact sheet was created with a view toward distributing information
about prospective mechanisms of justice at the numerous events worldwide
that have been planned to mark the 10th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide
(April 7), Holocaust Remembrance Day (April 18), the Cambodian genocide
(April 17) and the Armenian genocide (April 24).
Click
here for PDF of full fact sheet
Click here for PDF of full event details
George Mason University Web Site: http://www.gmu.edu/
du 9 avril au 14
mai 2004
au Memorial-CDJC, 37 rue de Turenne, 75003 Paris
Images de l'exposition sur le site du Memorial:
http://www.memorial-cdjc.org/fr/expos/Rwanda_expo/expoRWanda.htm
<<<< Le
communiqué de presse>>>>
CLICK HERE for more details (PDF)
Each
of these Anglican bodies has adopted a resolution:
Encourag(ing) Anglicans in Canada to commemorate on Palm Sunday, April
4th (also Refugee Rights Day in Canada), the 10th anniversary of the Rwanda
genocide, remembering in the prayers of the people or otherwise those
who perished and those who survived, involving Rwandans in their remembrance
wherever possible.
For complete list of initiatives CLICK
HERE (PDF)
Web Site: http://www.pwrdf.org/
In the space of 100 days, Hutu extremists engaged in wholesale slaughter of the country's minority Tutsis, as well as Hutu moderates. In all, an estimated 800,000 died – a number roughly equivalent to the entire population of New Brunswick. Through it all, Western nations did nothing. Moreover, many leaders of Rwanda's foremost faith community remained silent – or worse, took part in the genocide.
The United Nations has designated April 7 an “International Day of Reflection” on the events of spring 1994. To some, this well-intended gesture is too little and far too late.
To mark the 10th anniversary of the genocide, VisionTV's signature series 360 Vision studies the lingering after-effects of what remains one of the bloodiest and most shameful passages in human history. The program airs on Wednesday, March 31 at 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET . Click here for more details
A student steering committee will facilitate the symposium, which will feature speakers who work for human rights, John Shattuck and Mohamed Pa-Momo FoFanah. Shattuck is an acclaimed author and was the chief human rights official during the Clinton Administration. Pa-Momo, a Reebok Human Rights Award recipient, is one of Sierra Leone’s leading advocates of children’s rights and a relentless promoter of judicial and legal reform.
In preparation
for the April 1 Student Symposium, our student representatives had a choice
to research the following topics regarding Rwanda:
·Primary source documents from congressional records and the UN.
·Students interview: a parent, history teachers or local politician
regarding what they knew about Rwanda in1994.
·Print media: Was Rwanda being covered by local and national media
outlets? If so were stories appearing on the front-page or buried in the
newspaper?
This symposium culminates 7 months of work with a steering committee of 27 students representing Ridgeway, White Station and Wooddale High Schools. In collaboration with Facing History staff, these students have been actively researching and exploring the choices that individuals, governments and nations made during critical moments in history. It is our hope that connections will be made between these choices and those that affect our daily lives. With the help of the Plough Foundation, Facing History program staff is looking forward to continuing to work with this student leadership group.
Commemorating The Rwandan Genocide. Click here for full details
Sponsored by The Center for the Prevention of Genocide, Peacebuilding and Development Institute at American University, Society for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Student Organization for African Studies, and the Office of the University Chapel
5:30pm until 6pm: Awards for Outstanding Humanitarian Service Ceremony SIS Front Steps
6pm until 6:30pm: Survivors of Genocide Speak
6:30pm: Rwanda Vigil Departs from American University From SIS Front Steps down Massachusetts Ave.
7:30 until 8pm: Vigil Participants Arrive at the Embassy of Rwanda 1714 New Hampshire Ave., NW
8pm until 8:30pm: Rwanda Embassy Official: Welcoming Remarks
* For More Information, please contact the Center for the Prevention of Genocide at 703.528.1002
The
Institute for the Study of Genocide is holding a conference about the
10th anniversary of the Rwanda genocide at Union Theological Seminary
in New York City on May 8, 2004. For pre-registration and further information,
visit their Web Site http://www.isg-iags.org
DUFATANYE:
Lets Work Together, an international gesture of solidarity with the RWANDAN
PEOPLE.
Concert Features Performances by: Mighty Popo (Rwanda), Shane Murphy (Montreal),
Monica Freire (Brasil), Ville Emard Blues Band NG (Montreal) and
many more special gusts!
When: Sunday APRIL 11, 2004
Place: Theatre Corona, 2490 Rue Notre Dame Ouest, Montreal, Quebec
TIckets: $25.00 for more information and to order tickets call (514) 790-1245.
For full details visit the Concert Web Site:
www.dufatanye.com
Click here to view and download colour PDF version of event flyer
Sponsoring organizations for Remembering Rwanda Events in the Washington area include the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum; the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars; the Center for Strategic and International Studies; the Council on Foreign Relations; Refugees International; the International Crisis Group; the Fund for Peace; the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; Search for Common Ground; the Center for American Progress; Citizens for Global Solutions; the United States Institute of Peace; and the Embassy of Rwanda. Click here for full schedule (PDF Version)
Contact: Howard Wolpe ( hwolpe@aol.com ) or Louise Mushikiwabo ( lmushikiwa@aol.com )
Among the matters we discussed and decided are:
1. Working
title of symposium: "The Rwandan Genocide: Ten Years Later."
2. Dates: 5-6 May.
3. Venue: DCISM (the large auditorium has been reserved)
4. Co-sponsors: DCISM and Centre for African Studies
5. Themes and topics: justice after genocide, lessons for prevention of
genocide, and the current situation and needs in Rwanda, among others.
6. Funding: DIIS, DIMR, CAS, and possibly others (see below)
We also brainstormed for names of people in our region (Scandinavia, northern
Europe, United Kingdom) whom we might invite to give papers at the symposium.
As you know, a number of important individuals (Rene Lemarchand, Linda
Melvern, Suzanne Kaplan, and Urusaro Alice Karekezi) have agreed to participate.
Other names mentioned were Fergus Kerrigan and Ulrich Spliid, DIMR; Maxi
Schoemann from South Africa, who will be passing through Denmark at the
time; a man at SOAS on London recommended by Holger; Lennart Aspegren,
former Judge, ICTR; Cecile Aptel, ICTY; students from Bjoern's and Martin
and Eric's classes at Copenhagen University; and others.
With respect to format, we considered several alternatives but will postpone
firmer planning until we have a better idea about budget resources, expected
number of presenters, etc. In any event, there will be a combination of
keynote addresses, panels, and workshops. We expect a two-day symposium,
with a public event on the evening of day one, held perhaps at Politiken.
This would be a good venue for Linda Melvern, author of A People Betrayed:
The West and Rwanda's Genocide, and, forthcoming, Conspiracy to Murder:
The Rwanda Genocide.
With respect to funding, Eric announced that Holocaust and Genocide Studies
will contribute at least 20,000 DKK and salary for a part-time student
to help coordinate the symposium. Eric and Martin will work closely with
the student coordinator. Holger offered that CAS will fund Rene Lemarchand's
visit to Copenhagen and possibly another speaker. Bjoern plans to ask
his department leader if their department can contribute. Mette Holm will
meet with Birgit Lindsnaes and Fergus Kerrigan to discuss possible support
from DIMR. Holger will look into how Danida can be approached for possible
help.
The next meeting has been scheduled on a Friday in March.
Request to all: please send any additional names (and contact
information) of individuals who might be interested in participating in
the symposium.
Thank you,
Eric and Martin
Eric Markusen
Professor, Ph.D.
Senior Researcher
Danish Institute for International Studies
Strandgade 56
1401 Copenhagen K
Denmark
Tel: 45 32 69 89 30
E-mail: eka@diis.dk
Sponsored by Washington College of Law Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law.
April 7, 2004 marks ten years since the beginning of the Rwandan genocide, when nearly a million people were killed in ninety days while the international community largely stood by.
In response,
the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at American University
Washington College of Law has launched the Rwanda Commemoration Project:
Genocide in Our Time, an international initiative that seeks to raise
awareness of this anniversary and the important lessons of the tragic
events in Rwanda. The Project’s approach is to encourage people both to
look back at what led to the genocide in Rwanda and to look forward to
prevent looming genocide around the world today. To that extent, the Center,
with the cooperation of faculty and students, has produced an 8-page resource
booklet to encourage law schools, universities, high schools, NGOs, community
groups and religious organizations to plan programming to mark the 10th
anniversary of these heinous acts. The booklet, hauntingly illustrated
with drawings by child survivors of the Genocide, provides a short background
of the Genocide and a range of ideas for commemorative actions, substantive
programs and outreach activities. Also included are a short bibliography
of books, articles, films and traveling photo exhibits, website links
and a sample day of programming.
In addition to the resources available in the booklet, the Center’s website
(www.wcl.american.edu/humright/center)
has an expanded bibliography, an event planning worksheet, a sample press
release and a variety of poems, readings and other materials to help make
planning an activity as easy as possible.
Please join schools, community groups and individuals around the world to mark this important anniversary. While the United Nations has declared April 7, 2004 to be “International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda,” commemorative programs can be held at any time.
Electronic copies of the booklet can be downloaded from the Center’s website at www.wcl.american.edu/humright/center . Hard copies are available free of charge and can be requested by email at Rwanda@wcl.american.edu.
Friday,
April 23, 2004
Hosted by The Holocaust Memorial & Educational Center of Nassau
County, Glen Cove, NY
Since the Holocaust, many people have embraced the words “never again.”
Yet, today mass violence and genocide continue. Ten years ago this month,
the Rwandan genocide began. How could the post-Holocaust world stand
by and let this happen? We will address these issues, discuss how to
bring them into your classrooms, and hear testimony from David Gewirtzman,
a Holocaust survivor, and Jacqueline Murekatate, a survivor of the Rwandan
genocide. There is a $20 registration fee that covers breakfast and
lunch. For full details and to register call Tracy at 212 868-6544 X
34 or via email at
tracy_garrison-feinberg@facing.org
Click
here for Full Details of this event (PDF Version)
Sunday,
April 18, 2004
As part of the University of Amsterdam, the event will use
visual material, lectures and discussion to try convey what happened
a decade ago in Rwanda. It is open to students and also a larger audience,
as there aren't many other similar events in The Netherlands. It is
of course open to everyone. This film symposium with the working title
'Rwanda 10 years later' is organized together with the independent filmhouse
Kriterion, within their film/dicussion program Cinema Discutable.
Click here for Full Details of this event (PDF Version) Updated April 1, 2004
Click here for more information about this event and to visit the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Web Site
April
5-15, 2004
This
online conference April 5-15 looks at the role of education in rebuilding
civil society in the aftermath of mass violence. Rwanda is one of the
case studies. The on-line conference can be found at www.facinghistory.org
Click
here for Full Details of this event (PDF Version)
| MARCH
2004 PROJECT UPDATE
Greetings to supporters of RR10 around the world. Following on our progress reports of December and February, this will be our last update before the 10th anniversary itself. We are pleased to report that we learn each day of more and more commemoration events around the world. In fact, it's impossible to keep up with the events planned in the USA alone, organized as often by newcomers to the Rwandan cause as by universities and diasporan communities. Many events have already been held, with much success: In Belgium the first of a an ambitious series of varied events. In Paris, a conference at American University. In Washington, introducing the genocide to teachers from across the US. In Nova Scotia, panels on Remembering Rwanda at 2 universities. At Carleton University in Ottawa, a landmark conference on media and the Rwandan genocide with experts, including Rwandans, from Europe, North America and Africa. We are also gratified by the documentary films and plays that are planned. Respected media in the US, Canada, Britain and Europe (including but not restricted to) BBC, CBC, NPR, ABC News, PBS, History Channel, are all working on a Rwanda story to commemorate the 10th anniversary. Please see the website for specifics. We also anticipate significant news coverage of the events that are being planned throughout the western world and in Rwanda itself. In our progress reports of last December and February, we reported on many of the events that had come to our attention. Here we add several more that we have learned about in recent weeks. As always, apologies if we've inadvertently missed any. We look forward to seeing many of you either in Kigali or at your local commemoration events. On behalf of Remembering Rwanda, we thank you for your support for this very important movement. We remain determined that the victims of the genocide, the survivors, the perpetrators, and the "bystanders"-those outside powers with the capacity but not the will to have stopped the genocide---will not be forgotten. Many of you have asked us what happens after the 10th anniversary memorials end. Many want to continue making a contribution to the survivors of the genocide, among other things. We'll be back to discuss these matters with you in the months ahead. |
To mark the anniversary of the 1994 genocide on 27 March 2004, Never Again in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum and the Rwandan Embassy will be holding a one-day seminar on responses to the genocide in Rwanda.
Click here for full details: http://www.iwm.org.uk/rwanda/
With less than 2 months left,
commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the genocide has become a worldwide
cause. Communities and organizations across the globe are gearing up to
remember and memorialize the "preventable genocide". We want dignity for
the victims, understanding for the survivors, justice for the perpetrators,
and accountability for the "bystanders". Activities of various kinds and
scale are being finalized at this hour: a march from American University
to the Embassy of Rwanda is meant to catch the attention of drivers in
the heart of Washington D.C. during the evening rush hour of March 25;
General Romeo Dallaire will be testifying before the US Congress on April
22nd on how international institutions failed to act upon warnings of
Rwanda in 1994; a slow and moving ballet-style dance will be performed
in Los Angeles on April 7 to honor the women of Rwanda, victims of rape
and murder, etc....
Dec
2003 - UN to commemorate 10th Anniversary of Rwanda genocide |
Draft UN Resolution to designate April 7, 2004 as the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide in Rwanda |
December
2003 Project Progress Report:December
2003 Co-ordinator Message:
|
We can also report that Daniel and Nina Libeskind, winners of the international contest to rebuild the World Trade Centre cite, remain committed to designing a memorial on behalf of Remembering Rwanda for the 10th anniversary.
The Africa Union
The 10th anniversary of the genocide has now been officially recognized
by the Africa Union, the entity that replaced the Organization of Africa
Unity. The move resulted from an effort initiated by Remembering Rwanda
and spearheaded by our colleague Abdul Mohammed of the InterAfrica Group
in Addis Ababa.
The resolution calls on all member states, African civil society organizations,
as well as the United Nations, to take appropriate steps during the 10th
anniversary to commemorate and reflect on the genocide. The Executive
Council of the AU, which represents all the governments of Africa, unanimously
adopted the following resolution earlier this month:
Executive Council of the Africa Union: DECISION ON THE 10TH
ANNIVERSARY OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE
The Executive Council:
1. RECALLS the decision AHG/Dec. (XXXIV) adopted by the 34th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU held in Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso) in July 1998 by which the Assembly established the International Panel of Eminent Personalities (IPEP) to investigate the genocide in Rwanda and surrounding events;
2. FURTHER RECALLS the official launching of the IPEP report entitled "The Preventable Genocide" by the 36th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the OAU held in Lome, Togo [2000], by which the Assembly requested the Secretary General to pursue actively the implementation of the recommendations of the Report;
3. REAFFIRMS the principles enshrined in the Constitutive Act of the African Union, in particular, the prohibition of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity;
4. STRESSES the imperative need for the African Union to ensure the enforcement of the provisions of the Constitutive Act, the African Charter on Human and People's Rights as well as the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide in order to ensure that genocide never occurs against on the Continent;
5. DECIDES that 7 April 2004, the 10th Anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, be commemorated by the Commission as a day of remembrance of the victims of genocide in Rwanda, and reaffirmation of Africa's resolve to prevent and fight genocide on the Continent;
6. RECOMMENDS to the United Nations and the international community at large to take appropriate steps to commemorate 7 April 2004 as a day of reflection and recommitment against genocide in the world;
7. CALLS UPON all Member States and civil society organizations to publicize the anniversary and commemorate 7 April as a day of reflection on the tragedy of Rwanda and of commitment to the prevention of genocide in the Continent through appropriate activities;
8. REQUEST the Chairperson of the Commission to monitor the full implementation of the IPEP Report, to disseminate the present decision, to report to the Executive Council on the outcome of the remembrance day.
Click here for PDF Version of DECISION ON THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE RWANDAN GENOCIDE
The full OAU/IPEP report referred to in the resolution can be found online
in either English or French at:
http://www.internetdiscovery.org/forthetruth/Rwanda-e/EN-III-T.htm
http://www.internetdiscovery.org/forthetruth/Rwanda-f/FR-III-T.htm
Best wishes,
Gerald Caplan, Louise Mushikiwabo, Carole Ann Reed
Volunteer Coordinators, Remembering Rwanda
Click here for English Version
Click here for French Version
December
2002 Project Progress Report: November
2002
PREPARING
TO COMMEMORATE THE 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1994 RWANDA GENOCIDE: SOME
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY’S RESPONSE TO THE CRISIS
Presentation
to the 2002 Stockholm International Forum on Truth, Justice and Reconciliation
(revised version)
Read the Full Presentation:
Link
to full presentation (
Printer Friendly Version)
Link to full presentation (PDF
Version)