EGGP Expands its Vision: A Hub for Genocide Prevention Training and Engagement

ICAR successfully concluded another Engaging Governments on Genocide Prevention (EGGP) workshop in New York City from March 8–12, in collaboration with the Advanced Consortium on Cooperation, Conflict, and Complexity (AC4) of Columbia University. The most recent EGGP cohort included representatives from: Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Greece, the Netherlands, Niger, the Philippines, the Russian Federation, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Switzerland, and Yemen.

EGGP is a week-long training designed for representatives of UN member states that coordinates the implementation of actionable early warning and genocide prevention methods. Dr. Andrea Bartoli and his colleagues initially launched EGGP after many years of teaching genocide prevention through the Center for International Conflict Resolution (CICR) at Columbia University. Initially, no one knew whether the initiative would be sustainable, but with six sessions successfully concluded, and 81 representatives from 77 countries trained since 2007, it continues to gain momentum. EGGP is also gaining wider recognition from the genocide prevention field and ICAR is at the focal point of this increasing attention.

EGGP has proven to be an effective platform for three primary reasons: First, it successfully engages governments in the sensitive conversations around genocide, conducting those conversations within an academic environment. Second, the pedagogy has been effective. While seminars taught by experts provide relevant knowledge, the interactive curriculum enables busy state officials to remain engaged throughout the week. Third, strategic partnerships have been developed with institutional actors in the field: such as the UN Office of the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide; the Genocide Prevention Task Force at the US Institute of Peace; the Regional Fora on Genocide Prevention by the Swiss, Argentinean and Tanzanian governments; the Genocide Prevention Advisory Network (GPANet); the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS); and the Hungarian initiative to institute the Budapest Centre for International Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities.

Over the years, EGGP has evolved from a training event to an ongoing commitment that is fundamentally connected to the larger network of key actors involved in genocide prevention. This ongoing conversation ensures that its activities remain politically relevant and continue to strengthen our position in the field. In June 2010 EGGP will convene the meeting of GPANet, an international network of experts on the causes, consequences, and prevention of genocide and other mass atrocities, at Point of View. Recently, EGGP staff coordinated with the Swiss government to facilitate the editing and publishing of Politorbis, a Swiss journal dedicated to genocide prevention. Additionally, we are planning the first regional training on genocide prevention in Barbados, targeting 14 member states of CARICOM, to be convened in late 2010. EGGP is also exploring with the Swiss government and others an opportunity to partner with the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) for Genocide Prevention to identify focal points at the regional level and provide trainings on genocide prevention before a series of eight national and parliamentary elections scheduled to take place in 2010-11.

At this point, EGGP is embarking on a new phase of development during which it will continue to build on its experience with training, creating new ways to disseminate skills and knowledge through regionally based centers and institutions, and to facilitate the encounters of diplomats at the UN who come together to explore how to prevent genocide. This represents a shift from ‘EGGP as a week-long seminar’ to ‘EGGP as a hub’ connecting people and governments. It is also a shift from EGGP, as an occasion to bring states together, to EGGP as the secretariat through which those engagements are sustained.