Announcements
MIGS welcomes the appointment of Irwin Cotler, Chair and Founder of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, as Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Anti-Semitism.
MIGS welcomes the appointment of the new UN Secretary-General Alice Wairimu Nderitu as the UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide. Read the announcement here.
MIGS Digital Fellow Joana Cook was appointed to the Advisory Board of the International Counter-Terrorism Review, a new publishing platform for young scholars in terrorism studies
Upcoming Events |
MIGS, in collaboration with Agence Science Presse, will hold the third digital town hall on COVID-19 and disinformation featuring Eve Dubé (medical anthropologist), Eve Beaudin (journalist at Science Presse) and Nicholas De Rosa (journalist at Radio-Canada). Patrick White (Canadian journalist and professor of journalism at UQAM) will moderate the discussion.Please note that this discussion will be held in French. You can register here.
As part of the “Decoding Hate Speech” series, MIGS and Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes will host the fourth and final panel “Mobilizing the Community to Action”. Speakers will include Liberata Mulamula (Patron of the GAAMAC Africa Working Group), Noel Morada (Director of Regional Diplomacy and Capacity Building, Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect), Shara Duncan (Deputy Permanent Representative, Permanent Mission of the Republic of Costa Rica to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva), and Kyle Matthews (Executive Director, MIGS). The discussion will be moderated by Silvia Fernández de Gurmendi (GAAMAC Chair). You can register here.
12 January In this third event in the series “Les midis du Monde d’après”, Karim Benyekhlef, Cynthia Milton, and Kyle Matthews will discuss the potential post-pandemic ramifications that COVID-19 will hold for personal liberties and human rights. This bilingual event is hosted by the Max Bell School of Public Policy, Laboratoire de cyberjustice, the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, and the Centre d’études et de recherches internationale. You can register here. |
Recent Events
21 November
MIGS Executive Director Kyle Matthews spoke at the UN75 Global Youth Forum.
25 November
Kyle Matthews moderated the fourth meeting of the Budapest Centre for Mass Atrocities Prevention’s project “Towards a Multipolar Task Force to Prevent Mass Atrocities in the Era of Geopolitical Change, Climate Threats to Security and Digital Transformation.”
26 November
MIGS’ Senior Distinguished Fellow Lt-General Romeo Dallaire gave the Cleveringa lecture at the University of Leiden. General Dallaire was appointed Cleveringa professor in October.
3 December
MIGS hosted the event “Ethiopia on the Brink of Mass Atrocities” with the aim of raising awareness about the ongoing conflict and unfolding humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia. Speakers included William Davison (International Crisis Group), Sarah Hunter (Global Center for the Responsibility to Protect), Dr. Semahagn Abebe (Endicott College), and Susan Stigant (U.S. Institute of Peace). The video is available on YouTube and on itunes.
9 December
MIGS’ hosted a second virtual town hall to discuss “Conspiracy Theories & COVID-19 Disinformation” featuring Dr. Joan Donovan (Shorenstein Center at Harvard University), Melanie Smith (Graphika), and Dr. Heidi Tworek (UBC & CIGI). Aphrodite Salas (Concordia University) moderated this discussion. The video is available on YouTube.
MIGS co-hosted a series of events regarding the current human rights situation in Burundi. This was done in partnership with Alliance des Burundais du Canada, the Musée de l’Holocauste Montréal, Page Rwanda and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.
December 10
MIGS, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and the Baha'i Community of Canada convened “The Right to Education in Iran.” Irwin Cotler, Senator Mobina Jaffer and Kyle Matthews gave opening remarks.
Kyle Matthews participated in a digital press conference to raise awareness about the ongoing plight of the Rohingya on the international day of human rights. Senator Marilou McPhedran and Professor John Packer also took part in the event organized by the University of Ottawa’s Human Rights Research and Education Centre and the Rohingya Human Rights Network.
MIGS staff participated in a Global Affairs Canada briefing on the recent meeting of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
December 11
In collaboration with the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), MIGS co-hosted the Canadian launch of the 2020 Global Terrorism Index. Speakers included Mubin Shaikh, journalist Michelle Shephard, the IEP’s Michael Collins, and scholar Mia Bloom. The video is available on ourYouTube channel.
In the media
November 20
MIGS Project coordinator Marie Lamensch spoke to L’Apostrophe about the different causes of genocide.
MIGS Fellow Michael Petrou wrote an article for the CIC’s OpenCanada.org titled “Why journalism isn’t saving democracy.”
November 24
MIGS Digital Fellow Phil Gurski published the blog post “With crimes against humanity, the requirement to find and punish the guilty should never end.”
November 25
MIGS Digital Fellow Ewelina Ochab published two articles in Forbes titled “Buildings Turned Scarlet For Red Wednesday In Solidarity With Victims Of Religious Persecution” and “We Need More Effective Investigations Into Abuses Against Journalists.”
November 26
The online magazine Bitter Winter published the article “Tackling the Behemoth of China: Is The World Waking Up?”, which mentions MIGS’ recent conference on the persecution of Uyghurs held on 8 November.
November 28
MIGS Executive Director Kyle Matthews spoke to journalist Todd Vanderheyden about President Elect Biden’s expected foreign policy and approach to human rights.
December 1
Phil Gurksi hosted New York Times journalist Eric Schmitt on his podcast to talk about covering terrorism.
December 2
Ewelina Ochab published the article in Forbes “Are We All Complicit In Modern Day Slavery?”
December 5
Phil Gurski published an article on his blog titled “When will the Trudeau government wake up and smell the tea with regard to China?”
December 8
Ewelina Ochab published an article in Forbes titled “British Parliamentarians Affirm: ‘We Will Not Trade With States Perpetrating Genocide’”
December 14
MIGS Senior Distinguished Fellow Lt.-Gen. Roméo Dallaire spoke to Radio-Canada' "Pénélope" about the importance of youth activism