Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities – We are building a world that prevents genocide and other mass atrocities.

We are building a world that prevents genocide and other mass atrocities.

International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

The Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities (AIPG) commemorates August 9 as the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. This global observance was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1994 through the adoption of Resolution 49/214. The International Day marks the date of the first meeting of the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, which took place in 1982, and functions …

International Roma Genocide Remembrance Day

On this day, August 2, the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities commemorates International Roma Genocide Remembrance Day. This date is devoted to the Roma Genocide or Porajmos (“the Devouring”), which took place during World War II as a result of the racial purification efforts by Nazi Germany and its Axis Powers allies. On April 15 of 2015, the European Parliament adopted a resolution that established August 2 as the annual international observance of this date, which is also officially commemorated on a national basis in a growing number of countries.

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Every month, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation profiles an individual who emerged from our Raphael Lemkin Seminar with a personal commitment to prevent genocide and other mass atrocities. These role models are driven to make and shape policy at home and abroad around effective and sustainable prevention.

Francisco Celso Leitão Freitas

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 …

Dickson Magotsi

Dr. 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. Dr. 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 …

Sriprapha Petcharamesree

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, …

Lawrence Orowe

Mr. Lawrence Orowe is the Vice Chairman of Kenya’s National Committee for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, War Crimes, Crimes Against Humanity and All Forms of Discrimination. He formerly served as Group Legal Head of the Kenya Red Cross Society and also as a former Legal Advisor to the Department of Governance based at Kenya’s State House. Mr. Orowe specializes in a variety of topics including human rights …