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"Ending Mass Atrocities"
Introduction
Sierra Leone’s decade-long civil war, a conflict marked by extreme acts of systematic violence on all sides, wound to a close in January 2002 with the signing of a peace agreement between the government and the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebel forces. Transitional justice mechanisms were an integral part of the post-conflict period, first [...]
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From 20 to 21 April 2013, I attended the 2nd High-Level Tana Forum on Security in Africa, which was conducted under the theme: “Security and Organized Crime in Africa.” In attendance were several heads of states and former presidents, ambassadors, policy makers from regional and international organisations, activists, intellectuals and others. The [...]
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The legal truth seeking by courageous Guatemalans will continue, even if the Constitutional Court annuls the trial to date and returns it to a previous stage with a new judge who, in the past, has institutionalised impunity through a series of questionable rulings. This ongoing process is essential to prevent genocidal history from repeating itself or, in fact, from rhyming and places at the centre of the debate the question as to whether, at least in the minds of the victims, the genocide and its enduring impact have indeed ever ended.
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The coincidence of two news items about Burma/Myanmar today demand brief commentary: 1) International Crisis Group is honoring President U Thein Sein at its annual dinner, and 2) Human Rights Watch released a damning report about assaults against Burma’s Rohingya minority.
The most common way that atrocities against civilians end is when the perpetrators themselves [...]
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Stephen Weissman argues in a new essay, “In Syria, Unlearned Lessons from Libya” (In These Times, April 19 2013), that the paradigm of regime change as witnessed in Libya holds unlearned lessons for Syria: “While military intervention succeeded in helping remove a brutal dictator and giving Libyans an opportunity to build a more accountable [...]
Continue Reading →As we all recall, on 28 January 2012, our Heads of State and Government laid the foundation stone for the AU Human Rights Memorial (AUHRM) during the inauguration of the new AU Conference Centre and Office Complex. This is a very important project not only to preserve the memory of mass atrocities but also to prevent future recurrence of such crimes. We should, therefore, spare no effort to enable this Memorial achieve its central objective of becoming a permanent centre where people from all over the world gather to reflect on the sanctity of life. It should also serve as a place where our policy makers renew their collective commitment to prevent atrocious crimes such as genocide from happening ever again on our continent.
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