AS GENOCIDE CONTINUES TO SHAPE WORLD HISTORY, LANDMARK CONFERENCE WILL SEEK ANSWERS AND UNDERSTANDING

Reuters
Oct 21 2009
UK

International Group of Scholars Gather to Focus Lens on Genocide
through Examination of Raphael Lemkin, Advocate and Initiator of
United Nations Genocide Convention in 1948

NEW YORK, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire/ — Current news headlines are a sad
reminder that genocide has been, and continues to be, a stain on
human existence in all corners of the world, from Rwanda to Armenia,
to Darfur and beyond. Those headlines also underscore the urgency
of addressing every instance of the crime, particularly in light
of a statement made by Adolf Hitler before invading Poland in 1939:
"… I put ready my Death’s Head units, with orders to send to death,
mercilessly and without compassion, all men, women, and children of
the Polish race or language. … Who, after all, still talks nowadays
of the extermination of the Armenians?"

Inscribed on the wall of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.,
that quote illustrates that Hitler was emboldened by the lack of
international response to Turkey’s killing of more than a million
ethnic Armenians during World War I. By contrast, however, that episode
in human history was also the spark that led to the tireless efforts
of one man to define the crime of genocide under international law
and enable perpetrators, such as a recently arrested suspect in the
Rwandan genocide, to be charged and brought to justice. That man was
Raphael Lemkin, whose life-long devotion to the cause not only coined
and defined the word "genocide," but led to the 1948 United Nations
Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The invaluable contributions of Lemkin will be the focus of an
international public conference, "Genocide and Human Experience:
Raphael Lemkin’s Thought and Vision," to be held Sunday, November
15, from 9:00 a.m.-6:30 p.m., at the Center for Jewish History, 15
West 16th Street in New York City. Bringing together for the first
time an international group of historians, political scientists,
anthropologists, philosophers, philanthropists, and legal authorities
to explore the tremendous legacy and impact of Lemkin’s work,
the landmark conference will also delve into perpetually relevant
questions of human rights and the nature of human behavior.

"Raphael Lemkin died in 1959, and while few people today may recognize
his name, most feel the impact of his work," said Michael Glickman,
Center for Jewish History COO. "As a young Jewish lawyer in Warsaw
almost 90 years ago, Lemkin could not understand why it was a crime for
an Armenian youth to murder the Turkish official responsible for the
attempted destruction of the Armenian community in the Ottoman Empire,
but not a crime for the government to murder more than a million
Armenians. That question inspired Lemkin to devote the rest of his life
to fight against such horrors and to wage a campaign of international
advocacy that led to the United Nations Genocide Convention."

A wealth of Lemkin’s correspondence, along with papers documenting
Lemkin’s work as an activist, are housed in the archives of
the American Jewish Historical Society at the Center for Jewish
History. The documents include correspondences with public figures
such as Eleanor Roosevelt, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and Pearl
S. Buck; Lemkin’s unfinished manuscript History of Genocide; and
archival footage of interviews from the 1950s. The Lemkin archives
will also be the subject of a special exhibition at the Center for
Jewish History in partnership with Yeshiva University Museum scheduled
to run from November 16, 2009, to March 19, 2010.

Even though the crime of genocide is often understood as mass murder
alone, Lemkin viewed genocide as a nuanced concept, which shapes
and is determined by the spheres of economics, law, society, and
culture. Through Lemkin’s archival writings, the conference will
focus on these gradations of genocide, as Lemkin understood them.

Opening the conference will be an historical overview and brief
biographical account of Lemkin’s life, legal and other accomplishments,
and perspectives on the human condition, setting the context for the
panel discussions to follow.

Topics to be explored by three different panels fall under the broad
subjects of Lemkin’s perspective on cultural genocide, the complex
economic and social issues surrounding genocide, and the challenging
relationship between international law and genocide.

Among the distinguished list of presenters are Vartan Gregorian,
President, Carnegie Corporation of New York; Peter Balakian,
Colgate College; Donna-Lee Frieze, Deakin University, Melbourne,
Australia; Alexander Laban Hinton, Rutgers University; Jim Fussell,
PreventGenocide.org; Tanya Elder, American Jewish Historical Society;
Berel Lang, Wesleyan University; Benjamin Valentino, Dartmouth College;
Lawrence Woocher, US Institute of Peace; Hilary Earl, Nipissing
University, North Bay, Ontario; Benedict F. Kiernan, Yale University;
Muhamed Mesic, Bosnia; William A. Schabas, National University of
Ireland; and Steven Leonard Jacobs, University of Alabama.

"It is the hope of the Center and the conference sponsors that this
historic gathering will not only provide some clearer understandings of
both the extraordinary courage and dynamic intellect of one individual,
but will also clarify the challenges that lie ahead in confronting the
evil of genocide in the modern world," continued Mr. Glickman. "It is
said that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat
it. ‘Genocide and Human Experience: Raphael Lemkin’s Thought and
Vision’ represents one small step to teach the lessons humankind
so desperately needs, as history continues to repeat itself in the
21st century."

The conference is open to the general public. For more information,
visit ; or to register, log on to
or call 212-868-4444.