The Walrus Talks Human Rights video is now up. Check out Kyle Matthews' talk on "Social Media and the Power of Witness" and Frank Chalk's talk "Humanitarians: Interests Matter." You can also watch presentations from Harry LaForme, Ian Brown, Michael F. Charles, Sukanya Pillay, Wab Kinew, and Mustafa.
Raoul Wallenberg Project
With funding from the Swedish Institute (Svenska Institutet), MIGS is organizing a series of events to increase awareness among youth and the general public about the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, who is credited with rescuing the lives of up to one hundred thousand Jews during the Second World War in Budapest, Hungary.
The Raoul Wallenberg Legacy of Leadership Project aims at commemorating Wallenberg’s legacy and its importance for contemporary mass atrocity prevention in North America and abroad. Prominent human rights and genocide prevention experts will be giving presentations in fall 2014 at universities and other institutions in Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto. If this is of further interest to you, your organization or institute, do not hesitate to get in touch with us by email or connect via Facebook and Twitter. More information will soon be available on the upcoming project website.
Speeches
On June 9, Assistant to the Director Marie Lamensch gave a presentation titled "The Limits of the Responsibility to Protect" at the Université de Laval. The University organizes an annual Summer class on conflict and international interventions.
On June 17th MIGS' Distinguished Senior Fellow The Honorable Roméo Dallaire stepped down from his position as Senator. Read the full transcript of his last Senate speech.
Events
As mentioned in our previous newsletter, Andrei Serbin Pont, international analyst and CRIES (Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Económicas y Sociales) Research Coordinator, took part in a civil society exchange program with MIGS with the support of the Nexus Fund. MIGS took the opportunity to interview Andrei about CRIES' work. You can watch the interview here.
From June 7 to June 13, Kyle Matthews participated in fieldwork in Guatemala with the Guatemala Forensic Anthropology Foundation. The NGO aims to strengthen justice and respect for human rights by investigating, documenting and raising awareness about human rights violations that during Guatemala's civil war. Pictures illustrating the week-long field work are available on our Flickr Page (Pictures by Tristan Brand)
From June 18 to 20 MIGS hosted its second annual Professional Training Program on the Prevention of Mass Atrocities. The comprehensive three day program featured informative sessions with speakers from the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, the Université de Québec à Montréal, the Royal Military College of Canada, the Sentinel Project, the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect, the Child Soldiers Initiative, and Doctors without Borders. Pictures of this successful event are available on MIGS' Flickr Page. Watch Lt. Gen. Romeo Dallaire's speak about child soldiers and about his career.
On July 2nd W2I Deputy Director Kyle Matthews and Concordia political science Professor Peter Stoett attended the first Transatlantic Dialogue on the Responsibility to Protect at The Hague Institute for Global Justice. MIGS co-sponsored the Dialogue.
Interviews
On June 19th, the Montréal Gazette published an editorial about MIGS' Distinguished Senior Fellow Roméo Dallaire entitled "Canadians are indebted to Roméo Dallaire."
On June 20th Kyle Matthews gave an interview to Global Montreal on ending genocide in commemoration of World Refugee Day. Watch it here.
On June 25th Kyle Matthews sat down with CTV Montreal to discuss ISIS, Iraq and Syria. See what he had to say.
On July 3rd Roméo Dallaire & Shelly Whitman were featured on CBC Radio One's Information Morning. Listen to what they had to say about the Roméo Dallaire Child Soldier Initiative in this segment.
On July 3rd CTV News Atlantic interviewed Roméo Dallaire and Shelly Whitman on their work to end the recruitment of child soldiers. You can watch the interview here.
On July 4th Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire sat down with Cormac MacSweeney and the political team at Maclean's to talk peacekeeping. Listen to the interview.
Publications
On June 19th Kyle Matthews and Ecem Oskay co-authored an Op-Ed titled “Canada should welcome Syrian refugees”, which was featured in the Ottawa Citizen.
On June 30th Marie Lamensch published an articled titled "Et si c'était votre enfant qui devait se rendre dans un camp de réfugiés?" for the Huffington Post.
Awards
On June 15th Retired Lt. Gen. Roméo Dallaire received an honorary doctorate from the l'Université Laval.