Genocide Prevention Program

Genocide Prevention Program
Director, Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Ph.D.

Mission

Located at the Center for Peacemaking Practice in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University, the Genocide Prevention Program (GPP) was founded to engage United Nations Member States and other regional and sub-regional organizations in building a network of states and local communities committed to preventing genocide and mass atrocities. GPP supports state policies and practices directed towards atrocity prevention, promotes genocide education and strategic training initiatives, and helps to build grassroots networks across the world that are committed to ending mass violence and mass atrocities.

We have built lasting partnerships with national governments, inter-governmental organizations, non-governmental organizations, universities, and local communities around the world. This is guided by our belief that genocide is a global phenomenon requiring global solutions. 

Genocide prevention is not only a question of promoting good governance. It requires promoting tolerance and acceptance of diversity, as well as promoting the equal access to rights, resources, and opportunities for all people. We therefore believe that genocide can be prevented by:

1. Strengthening partnerships between local communities and the international community, such as building positive collaboration between local, national, and global organizations; 
2. Strengthening the commitments of inter-governmental organizations to human rights and the rule of international law; and, most importantly, 
3. Working with local institutions and grassroots social networks to build more durable social ties amongst divided communities, to prevent the occurrence and reoccurrence of genocide.

Vision, Work, Practice

GPP contributes to academic efforts to promote a more informed public, political, and academic dialogue on genocide and genocide prevention. As such, GPP is dedicated to the reflective practice of peace and genocide prevention by developing robust early warning and early response systems, strengthening political and social institutions that can work towards these ends, and preparing a new generation of global leaders, citizens, and peacemakers who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and ambition necessary for helping to make a world without genocide a reality.

Violence Prevention Initiative (VPI)
Sixte Vigny Nimuraba, Project Director
Co-Director, Douglas Irvin-Erickson
 

Since the beginning of 2013, GPP has been closely involved in violence prevention work in Burundi. With the support of Friends Committee for National Legislation, Peace Direct, and other organizations, GPP contributed to  a then newly created violence prevention initiatives in Burundi, selecting key Burundian peace and human rights activists from across Burundian civil society organizations who could contribute to the initiative and whose institutions could join the Burundian Peacebuilding and Violence Prevention Network.

Since early 2015, GPP has worked to strengthen and expand the Burundi Peace and Nonviolence Network. Our activities focus on reaching out to Burundian youth who are the most likely to join youth armed groups and participate in cycles of violence. We provide peace and non-violence training to youth through sporting tournaments, cultural celebrations, and other festivities hosted with local partners. And we work to strengthen trust and peaceful, mutual exchanges between local governments, administrations, civil society institutions, social and civil leaders, political parties, and youth networks.

Our most recent efforts in Burundi in 2016 have included:

1) An initiative to reach out to youth through summer educational and vocational camps to give them incentives for resisting the temptation to earn money for their families by joining armed groups;

2) And historic efforts to create positive spaces of interaction, collaboration, and dialogue between youth groups and the police and military.  

Under the umbrella of VPI, GPP consults several governments and United Nations bodies on the peace process in Burundi; is engaged in an on-going evaluation of the National Dialogue process; and initiates Track II dialogue processes between parties in conflict. 

You can read the most recent report of our violence prevention activities here.

Rwandan Diasporic Project
Claudine Kuradusenge, Project Director

Diaspora communities hold an important role in the development and implementation of peaceful initiatives as well as the financial support of armed conflicts. Linking at least two countries, they have the political power to promote their social group’s needs while influencing the cultural and political decisions in their homeland. Most importantly, the new generations in Diaspora are playing an essential role in the future of their countries. Their narratives and sense of activism are shaping the course of many conflicts as well as peaceful initiatives.

In the current instabilities in the Great Lake Region and the upcoming election in Rwanda, this project aims to explore the evolution of the Rwandan identity within the Diaspora communities as well as the mobilization 'for or against' President Kagame's third therm. Rwandans around the world are shaped by a consciousness formed around a trans-generations shift in narratives of identity. In other words, this project is exploring the new generations of Rwandans, in diaspora, and reflects on their sense of identity and civil mobilization.

Genocide & Atrocity Prevention Graduate Student Study Group
Sani Zanovic, Project Director

The Genocide & Atrocity Prevention Graduate Student Study Group meets to help S-CAR graduate students produce cutting-edge research and writing in the field of Genocide Studies, and to provide a platform for allowing GMU students to pursue creative and inspiring projects that enrich the GMU community. The study group is open to any graduate student enrolled in GMU who is interested in publishing work related to genocide and genocide studies and atrocity prevention, or closely related fields that involve violent and non-violent genocidal processes, transitional justice, or mass violations of human rights. Workshop participants meet to discuss and plan student-led activities, and to revise their ongoing writing projects, with the goal of transforming past graduate coursework at S-CAR into outstanding academic journal articles in the field of Genocide Studies; and to share and workshop dissertation chapters. For Study Group meeting times during the Fall 2016 and Spring 2017 semesters, contact Sani Zanovic ([email protected])

 Dr. Douglas Irvin-Erickson, Director of GPP

Douglas Irvin-Erickson has worked in the field of genocide studies and atrocity prevention in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Cambodia, Myanmar, Ukraine, and Argentina. He is the author of books, chapters, and articles on genocide, religion and violence, human security, international criminal law, and political theory. His current research includes a book on the life and works of Raphael Lemkin, the originator of the word "genocide" who authored the UN Genocide Convention (UPenn Press, 2017). Irvin-Erickson also serves as Editor of Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal, the official publication of the International Association of Genocide Scholars. He holds a Ph.D. in Global Affairs from Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and an M.A. in English Literature.

Sixte Vigny Nimuraba, Project Director of GPP’s Violence Prevention Initiative. Vigny Nimuraba is currently the Dean’s Assistant and a Ph.D. Student in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR),at George Mason University (GMU).  He serves as the Director of GPP’s Violence Prevention Initiative. He has been working with many Burundian organizations to prevent violence in the last two years. He is a Shinnyo alumni. In his shinnyo–en Foundation project, “Building inter-cultural Bridges at GMU,” he brought together international and American GMU students through dialogue. In 2013, he received the John Burton award from George Mason University for havingexhibited excellence in academics as well as an emphasis on understanding the role of human needs in promoting conflict. Currently, he is working closely with the Burundian civil society, national and international organizations to prevent violence before, during and after the 2015 elections in Burundi. He has been working closely with UNHCR and Ligue Iteka in Burundi until 2011 as Regional Coordinator through the Ligue Iteka’s Monitoring of Returnees Project. First he coordinated activities in five Northern provinces (Ngozi, Kirundo, Kayanza, Muyinga and Karusi) and after got promoted and coordinated the South (Makamba, Bururi and Rutana) because there was a higher number of returnees and land conflicts to deal with. Before Ligue Iteka, he held different positions from local and international organizations such as VISPE, Care International, and CNLS, among others, from which he got the inspiration and passion to dedicate his life to peaceful coexistence, Human Rights and social cohesion. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Ngozi (Burundi) and a Master’s degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from George Mason University (USA).

Claudine Kuradusenge, Director of the Rwandan Diasporic Project. Originally from Rwanda, is a PhD Candidate at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, Arlington, VA. Her Studies have been focusing on identity formation in relation to social and Diaspora consciousness in the Rwandan Diaspora communities both in Europe and United States. Her latest work was exploring the narrative of identity, sense of victimhood, and copying mechanism among the Hutu Diaspora Community in Belgium.  Her professional work led her to work with African and Middle Eastern International Students, Refugees, and Diaspora communities. As a Conflict Resolution consultant, she has been at the front line of racial conflicts both in the US and Brazil, youth education in Europe, and culturally sensitivity initiatives in the United Stated. Her consultancy work has led her to work with youth engagement and empowerment organizations, multicultural (racial and ethnic) dialogues, and post-conflict trauma healing settings. Claudine Kuradusenge is also the founder of Nsundu, an organization that combines social empowerment for minority and people of color, sustainable development, fair trade, and Peacebuilding in Africa, and individual/personal achievement and self-worth through intimate, group dialogues in a safe space in order to promote community-building.

Dr. Sarah Federman. Sarah was Project Director of GPP’s Corporate Responsibility and Genocide Initiative, from 2014 to 2017. She is now Assiatant Professor at the University of Maryland, Baltimore. Federman completed an M.A. at the American University of Paris and a degree in Intellectual History from the University of Pennsylvania. Her research addresses the French train company's (SNCF) role in the WWII deportations and the ensuing U.S. conflict that exists today fueled by unhappy survivors. She worked pro-bono with the House of Representatives, looking for ways to reconcile the company’s past while continuing to serve as a productive contributor to society. Her dissertation explores this case through the larger lens of corporate accountability for mass atrocity. She also has an avid interest in the role of language in conflict. Her blog www.languageofconflict.com considers the role of language across a variety of personal and international contexts.

Alex McDermott, GPP's Outreach Director and Program Analyst for GPP's Violence Prevention Initiative. Alex is a graduate student at the George Mason School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. She received her Bachelors Degree from Brigham Young University with a major in Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic and a minor in International Development. Her research interests include gender based violence and post conflict resolution. 

Sani Zanovic, Project Director of GPP’s Genocide & Atrocity Prevention Graduate Student Study Group. Sani Zanovic is a MS student in the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University. Sani holds a B.A in International Studies with a focus on Eastern Europe.  Sani’s passion and drive for Genocide Prevention come form being born and raised in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her research includes a semester at the Holocaust Memorial Museum working with archives and narratives of the Roma survivors of the Holocaust. Other research includes an undergraduate thesis on Bosnia’s educational system and “Two Schools Under One Roof” phenomenon. Sani has also worked and interned with other NGO’s such as Sudan Sunrise. As an intern she represented Sudan Sunrise at several Genocide prevention events as well as workshops. In her personal research and goals Sani is committed to learning about the forgotten aspects of genocides such as the Holocaust, as well as bringing awareness to genocides happening currently around the world.

Hannah Krentler Brown.  Hannah directed GPP's Refugee and Displaced Persons Policy and Programs Analyst, as part of GPP’s Violence Prevention Initiative, in 2016. Hannah is currently a Ph.D. student at George Mason University’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR). She received her B.A. at the University of California, Davis in International Relations and Sociology, concentrating on international development, where she first became interested in studying genocide and mass atrocities after becoming heavily involved in anti-genocide activism. She completed her M.A. at the University of California, Santa Barbara in Global & International Studies focusing on human rights in sub-Saharan Africa. After conducting primary research in Uganda in a former internally displaced persons (IDP) camp and working for the Political and Economic Division of the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, Hannah finished her MA thesis titled “How Mitigating Conflict and Building Lasting Peace Prevents Genocide and Mass Atrocity: A Ugandan Case Study for Central Africa Today.” Following the completion of her M.A., she worked for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, Tanzania where she worked predominantly with the monitoring and evaluation team conducting program quality evaluations, project baseline assessments, and emergency refugee protection assessments. Before coming to S-CAR Hannah spent the summer learning French as a Kathryn Davis Fellow for Peace at Middlebury College’s intensive summer immersion program. At S-CAR Hannah’s research focuses on refugee protection and she is a member of the Genocide Prevention Program (GPP) at the School. At GPP Hannah works on the Violence Prevention Initiative as the Refugee and Displaced Persons Policy and Programs Analyst. 

Keith Singleton, Atrocities Prevention Policy Analyst, GPP's Violence Prevention Initative. Keith holds a Bachelor’s of Art degree in International Relations from the University of Oklahoma and a Master of Science in Conflict Analysis & Resolution from George Mason University. Prior to joining GPP, Keith served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco where he engaged in projects on Youth Development and Conflict Prevention. With GPP’s VPI in Burundi, Keith brings his experience working with youth to prevent violence and promote social cohesion among divided groups. His area of doctoral research is focused on using the tools and criteria within the framework of genocide studies and prevention to analyze American society’s systemic violence towards African Americans. Keith will analyze atrocities in American history to better understand contemporary systems of oppression in American society. 

Adeeb Yousif. Adeeb Yousif was Project Director of GPP's Identity Polices and African Genocide Project (IPAGP) from 2013 to 2017. Adeeb Yousif Abdel Alla was born in the village of Guldo in Darfur, Sudan. For 14 years, he worked with grass roots and social justice movements throughout Sudan. In April 2001, Adeeb co-founded the Sudan Social Development Organization (SUDO), a human rights, humanitarian relief, and development NGO. Adeeb worked deep inside rural areas to empower local communities to demand their rights from the government. He then helped develop the Darfur Emergency Response Operation, which runs programs for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and host communities in Darfur. Due to his human rights activism, Adeeb was detained twice by the Sudanese government, for close to a year, and endured torture during this time.

Kofi Goka, Student Research Associate. Kofi Goka was the Project Director of GPP’s Genocide Prevention in Africa Initiative (2015). He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Kutztown University in Pennsylvania (USA) and Master of Arts in International Affairs from Washington University in St. Louis (USA). Born and raised in Ghana, Goka worked in the construction industry, where he completed various projects for the Government of Ghana. He secured and won the award for the supplies of mercury from Minas D’Almaden of Spain for small scale miners in West Africa. His business dealings with various entities accorded him the opportunity of traveling extensively across West Africa. These travels equipped Kofiwith the necessary tools in understanding people of diverse background and cultures. After working in Ghana, he immigrated to the United States to pursue further studies. While working with Bihler of America Inc. of Phillipsburg, New Jersey as an Inventory Analyst, he pursued his dream of seeking knowledge by enrolling in institutions of higher learning in the United States. After his bachelors and graduate degrees, his aim of contributing towards the peace that has eluded most communities in his native Ghana and beyond ignited his passion to undertake further studies in Conflict Resolution, Diplomacy and Genocide Prevention. He is currently enrolled in a graduate program at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (SCAR), George Mason University and also a member of the Genocide Prevention Program at the School. At GPP, Goka directs the Genocide Prevention in Africa Initiative. In his personal research, he is committed to studying the connection between resources and genocidal violence in Africa to help answer the question of why some of the world’s most resource-rich countries suffer genocide. He believes the answers to this question are necessary for preventing genocide and promoting reconciliation after genocide, globally.

Genocide Prevention Network (GPN)
Sara Saghar Birjanidian, Project Director

The Genocide Prevention Network (GPN) works to strengthen relationships between genocide prevention scholars and practitioners, policy makers, civil society actors, and communities. Building on the strong relationships established over the last four years in the Great Lakes region of Africa through GMU’s Genocide Prevention Program, GPN will continue to identify understudied and underdeveloped entry points for the installment of preventative mechanisms and tools at local, national, and regional levels. GPN functions at two levels: (1) supporting local partners in Africa’s Great Lakes region to strengthen mass atrocity prevention and (2) producing scholarly research and analysis that will catalyze critical discussions and develop analytic and normative frameworks for prevention in diverse fields of study and practice.

Click here to view the Genocide Prevention Network website

Genocide Prevention in Africa Initiative (GPAI)
Kofi Goka, Project Director
Chukwuma Onyia, Associate Project Director

The increase of genocide in Africa has stimulated students of George Mason University to create an initiative that aims at preventing genocide in Africa. The initiative contributes to the study and practice of Genocide Prevention in Africa through:

• Scholarly Research and Publication
• Engaged Research in African Countries
• Practice of Genocide Prevention

GPAI’s work on genocide prevention is guided by our understanding of genocide as a complex, social, political and economic process that involves bigotry, social “othering” and discrimination, in addition to state-sanctioned violence or organized mass-killing. As such, we are dedicated to the belief that preventing genocide and building peace after genocide requires:

1. Promoting tolerance and cultural diversity by strengthening grass roots social and political institutions dedicated to speaking out against violence,
2. Understanding and addressing the political and economic interests that often underscore genocide and genocidal processes, and
3. Strengthening the rule of international law and human rights.

Towards these ends, our work focuses on studying individual cases of genocide in Africa while paying close attention to the larger political and social dynamics of genocide, across the continent and globally. From this foundation of intimate regional knowledge, combined with the study of global social and political dynamics, GPAI seeks to deepen our understanding of how and why genocides take place in particular societies and in the world as a whole, and to take meaningful and responsible action to prevent genocide and promote social reconciliation after genocide.

Corporate Responsibility and Genocide Initiative (CRGI)
Sarah Federman, Project Director
Co-Director, Douglas Irvin-Erickson

The Corporate Responsibility and Genocide Initiative (CRGI) builds on Sarah Federman’s doctoral research on the French train company's (SNCF) role in the WWII deportations and the ensuing U.S. conflict that exists today fueled by unhappy survivors. The CRGI meets to study corporate involvement in genocide and mass atrocities, both historically and in contemporary contexts. The two-fold goal of the initiative is to generate scholarship and a greater awareness of corporate accountability in mass atrocities while building partnerships between victims and survivors, corporations, and global civil society institutions to work towards finding solutions to help corporations serve as productive contributors to global society.

Identity Polices and African Genocide Project (IPAGP)
Initiative Adeeb Yousif, Project Director
Co-Director, Douglas Irvin-Erickson

Situational identity, where individuals and groups claim political power based on identity, has become a major source of insecurity for people in Sub-Saharan Africa–Countries. Political instability and bloody conflicts and genocide have resulted from these negative forms ethnic identification, tribalism, tribal fanaticism, regionalism, religious intolerance, and tribal agglomeration, resulting in tens or hundreds of dead and wounded victims in the region. The human rights situation in the region continues to deteriorate, and civilians still bear the brunt of human rights violations that are motivated by identity politics—these ideas have psychological effects, narrating differences between the in-group and the out-group, between the us and them, which can lead people to kill each other.

GPP’s and IPAGP's Structural Awareness for Building Relationships Project recognizes that genocide prevention programs can play a positive role in this process, beyond simply militating against mass killing. The project is aimed at creating: 1) structural awareness of conflicts and the role of identity politics in these conflicts; 2) a positive notion ethnicity that where ethnic identities are not seen as mutually exclusive; and 3) a human values identity that can lead to functional coexistence, sustainable peace, reconciliation and preventing genocide. The project will be implemented through civil society groups, humanitarian groups, developmental organizations, and academic institutions in Sudan, and Sub-Saharan African region. The project is targeted at local communities and key stakeholders in the region, to build the capacity of local communities to participate in problem-solving, rather than leaving them out of remote conflict resolution formalities. GPP believes that the prevention and the solution to genocide in this region, and the identity-driven conflicts, lies in the reforming of an organic government system in Sub-Saharan African countries, as well as in reforming civil society where all peoples of these countries diverse communities are allowed full participation on their own soil.

Update from the field—IPAGP’s work in Darfur. IPAGP is currently conducting research in Darfur, to ask whether fragmentations based on identity affiliation further increase the risk of clashes and jeopardize conflict mitigation in Darfur. This research examines the splitting of rebel groups and its effects on conflict mitigation in Darfur, and argues that identity mobilization, or “tribal mobilization,” presents a major obstacle to peace and democratic governance. When an armed group mobilizes its members on a situational identity basis to fight against an authoritarian regime, they will end up dividing and fighting amongst themselves. Lack of a clear, united political vision, poverty, self-interest, lack of charismatic leadership and the opponent role will most likely lead groups to fragment. Rebels fight against other rebels, religious sects, tribes, clans, and families, making conflict mitigation and peace extremely difficult to achieve. These hypotheses are illustrated in the split between the Sudan Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), resulting in 40 rebel factions between 2005-2015. The research aims to highlight further the dynamics and processes involved in these types of complex, protracted civil wars. For the past eight years, 25 peace agreements have been signed between the Government of Sudan (GoS) and 25 rebel factions. Regrettably, none of these agreements were able to bring peace or security to Darfur rather they’ve increased the level of insecurity and have further divided the Darfur community.

Past Student Associates (2014-2017)

• Lojain Alsheddi, Graduate Research Associate
   
• Sara Saghar Birjanidian, Project Director of GPP’s Genocide Prevention Network. Sara Saghar Birjanidian is the Director of the Genocide Prevention Network (GPN) at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, George Mason University (GMU). She is also the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of GAPS Centre for Governance, Peace, and Security, a non-profit organization based in Kampala, Uganda, where she is currently based. Birjandian’s areas of focus include bottom-up approaches to transitional justice, interdisciplinary approaches to defining guarantees of non-recurrence, early warning and effective response, truth telling, and strengthening traditional mechanisms and processes in transitional justice. Her latest research focuses on the relationship between transitional justice and the prevention of mass atrocities. With GPP, Birjandian provided support to the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region’s Genocide Prevention Program. Prior to this, she worked with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada gathering statements from Canada’s Indian Residential School Survivors and supported local reconciliation efforts. She is an approved Mediator with the New York Peace Institute and holds an M.S. in Global Affairs, with a concentration in Human Rights and International Law from New York University, as well as a B.A. in Philosophy, with a concentration in Ethics and Legal Philosophy from the University of Victoria. 
   
• Chloe Edmonds, Gradaute Research Intern, Georgetown Univesity
   
• Ruba Hindi, Graduate Research Associate
   
• Jaspinder Kaur, Graduate Research Associate
   
• Kayla Tyler, Graduate Research Associate
   
• John Dale Grover, Graduate Research Associate

Journals:

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Journal of Genocide Research

Holocaust and Genocide Studies

La Revista de Estudios sobre Genocidio

Organizations:

The International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)

The International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS)

What is genocide?

GPP’s work is guided by our understanding of genocide as a complex, social, political and economic process that involves bigotry, social “othering,” and discrimination, in addition to state-sanctioned violence or organized mass-killing. Genocide is a type of identify based-conflict. Yet genocide is not caused by differences in identity, but by the implications of social identities in terms of the unequal access to economic resources, social and political opportunities, and basic rights. 

We are dedicated to the belief that preventing genocide, and building peace after genocide, requires:

1. Promoting tolerance and and the acceptance of cultural diversity by strengthening grassroots social and political institutions dedicated to speaking out against, and preventing, violence;
2. Understanding and addressing the political and economic interests that often underscore genocide and genocidal processes; and
3. Strengthening the rule of international law and human rights.

The Genocide Convention adopted by the UN in Paris in 1948 defines genocide as:

Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;
(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Article III: The following acts shall be punishable:

(a) Genocide;
(b) Conspiracy to commit genocide;
(c) Direct and public incitement to commit genocide;
(d) Attempt to commit genocide;
(e) Complicity in genocide.