On June 16, the Auschwitz Institute, in partnership with the Center for Memory and Development in Kenya, organized a Global Summit to support the transformation, restoration, and rehabilitation of the Nyayo House — a government building in Nairobi often referred to as Nyayo House Torture Chambers — into an official site of memory. The Global Summit brought together Nyayo House survivors and their families, leaders from the Center for …
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The Auschwitz Institute recognizes today, May 29, as the annual International Day of United Nations Peacekeepers. The commemorative date was established through A/RES/57/129, which was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2003 to honor the individuals who have served as United Nations Peacekeepers since operations began in 1948. This year, the United Nations celebrates the 73rd anniversary of UN Peacekeeping, a unique and dynamic instrument to help …
Read moreThrough our Profiles in Prevention series, the Auschwitz Institute highlights leaders who have emerged from programs like our Raphael Lemkin Seminar with an especially strong commitment to preventing genocide and other mass atrocities. These role models strive to create and shape policies, both at home and abroad, that focus on effective and sustainable prevention.
Mauricio Coitiño (@mauricio_uy) is a specialist in public policy and communications from a human rights perspective. He holds a master’s degree in Public Policy from the Catholic University of Uruguay with a specialization in Methods and Analysis. As a consultant, he has completed projects involving the research and design of public policy, trained officials on human rights and discrimination issues, and evaluated international social organizations. Between 2010 and 2011, …
Francisco Celso Leitão Freitas is a history teacher and the Pedagogical Director of the Respect and Attitude Association (AREA, for its initials in Portuguese) in Brazil. A a cultural producer and specialist in inclusive education, he is the creator of, and collaborator on, many educational and cultural projects aimed at empowering Black, poor, and marginalized youth in Brazil’s Federal District. The impact of his pedagogical-cultural interventions has been recognized …
Irinel Rotariu is a Colonel Magistrate and military prosecutor at the Military Prosecutor’s Office in Iași, Romania. He attended the Law Faculty at Alexandru Ioan Cuza University in Iași, Romania, where, since 2007, he has served as an Associate Professor. Currently, he is engaged in doctoral studies in Philosophy at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Political Sciences at the same university. From May of 2018, he has been …
Lokuto Bismark Simon works with the Community Empowerment for Progress Organization – South Sudan (CEPO) as a Project Officer and also acts as a member of the South Sudan National Committee for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and All Forms of Discrimination. He attended the November 2018 edition of the Global Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention in Poland.
Putri Maha Lima is the Director of Policy, Education and Publicity at the Secretariat of the ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Assembly (AIPA) in Jakarta, Indonesia. Before joining AIPA, she was a Program Coordinator for Regional Cooperation for a German political foundation based in Indonesia and was also nominated by UNICEF to participate in Leiden University’s Short Course on Children’s Rights. Ms. Maha Lima attended AIPR’s Raphael Lemkin Global Seminar in Poland in …
Lillian Kobusingye currently serves as a Program Officer at the Uganda Association of Women Lawyers – FIDA-Uganda – a national women’s organization that advances the rights of women with the use of law as a social tool. An alumna of the University of Wales in the United Kingdom, she devotes her time as an activist toward issues concerning the rights of women and children in Uganda. Ms. Kobusingye attended …
Edwine Okuta is a member of the Kenyan National Committee on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and All Forms of Discrimination (KNC), the Kenyan International Humanitarian Law Committee, and the Law Society of Kenya. As an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya, he holds a Bachelor of Laws as well as Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Philosophy from the …
Shara Duncan serves as Minister Counsellor to the Permanent Mission of Costa Rica to the United Nations in New York, in charge of International Law, Rule of Law and Genocide Prevention issues. She has previously worked as an Advisor to the Office of the Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Affairs and Worship on issues of international litigation. Ms. Duncan is a lawyer and has earned a master’s degree in …
Mr. Dickson Liyayi Magotsi currently serves as the Undersecretary and Head of Programs for the Kenyan Ministry of Interior and Coordination’s National Steering Committee on Peacebuilding and Conflict Management, housed in the Ministry’s Conflict Early Warning and Response Unit. Mr. Magotsi also sits on the Kenyan National Committee for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and All Forms of Discrimination. During …
Dr. Sriprapha Petcharamesree is the Director of the Ph.D. Program in Human Rights and Peace Studies (International) of the Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies at Mahidol University in Thailand. In October of 2009, she was appointed by the national government to act as the Thai Representative to the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights, a role she served in until December of 2012. In addition to her academic duties, …