FOURTH SEMINAR IN UNLEARNING INTOLERANCE SERIES TO FOCUS ON CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES IN COMBATING GENOCIDE

FOURTH SEMINAR IN UNLEARNING INTOLERANCE SERIES TO FOCUS

ON CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES IN COMBATING GENOCIDE

The fourth seminar in the “Unlearning Intolerance” seminar series of the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) will focus on “Critical Perspectives in Combating Genocide:  What We Can Do to Prevent.  What We Can Do During.  What We Must Do After”.  The seminar, organized jointly with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will be held at UN Headquarters in New York on 21 November from 1:15 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., at the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium.

The seminar will focus on prevention and punishment of criminals, raise public awareness and include reflections of someone who suffered personal loss from the 1994 Rwandan genocide.  It coincides with the sixtieth anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials, which judged the accused war criminals of Nazi Germany.  Unanimous affirmation of the Nuremberg principles by the United Nations in 1947 implied a promise that "never again" would aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity go unpunished.  The United Nations General Assembly in 1948 adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

Part of the DPI mission is to bring together voluntary organizations, educators and other components of civil society for discussions with the United Nations system on issues that are not just universal in their scope but have a direct and palpable impact upon the lives of children, women and men everywhere.  The seminar falls squarely within that effort.

The seminar will be moderated by Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor.  Panellists will include Juan Méndez, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide and President of the International Center for Transitional Justice; Dina Temple-Raston, journalist and author of Justice on the Grass: Three Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes, and a Nation’s Quest for Redemption (2005); Simone Monasebian, Chief of the UNODC New York Office; and Louise Mushikwabo, human rights activist and author of Rwanda Means the Universe, a soon-to-be-released multigenerational family memoir set against the backdrop of the 1994 genocide.  The seminar will be webcast at http://www.un.org/webcast.

Following the seminar, Ms. Temple-Raston will be signing copies of her recently published book, Justice on the Grass:  Three Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes, and a Nation’s Quest for Redemption (2005).  Copies of the book are available at the United Nations Bookshop.

The “Unlearning Intolerance” seminar series was launched by the Outreach Division of the DPI on 21 June 2004 in order to examine different manifestations of intolerance and explore ways to promote respect and understanding among peoples.  It offers opportunities to discuss how intolerance, wherever it exists and for whatever reason, can be “unlearned” through education, inclusion and example.  The first seminar, “Confronting Anti-Semitism:  Education for Tolerance and Understanding”, was held on 21 June 2004; the second, “Confronting Islamophobia:  Education for Tolerance and Understanding”, on 7 December 2004; and the third, “Fanning the Flame of Tolerance:  The Role of the Media”, on 3 May 2005 as part of the World Press Freedom Day commemoration.  Coverage of these three seminars and text of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s opening remarks are online at http://www.un.org/chronicle.

The agenda for the 21 November seminar is as follows:

Registration:   12:15 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Welcoming Remarks:   1:15 p.m. Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Shashi Tharoor

Panel Discussion: 1:30 p.m. - 2:15 p.m.

-- Prevention:  Juan Méndez, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide; President, International Center for Transitional Justice;

-- Public Awareness:  Dina Temple-Raston, Journalist and author Justice on the Grass: Three Journalists, Their Trial for War Crimes, and a Nation’s Quest for Redemption;

-- Punishment:  Simone Monasebian, Chief of the UNODC New York Office; former Prosecution Trial Attorney, International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda; Court TV Legal Analyst;

-- Picking up the Pieces:  Louise Mushikwabo, human rights activist and author of Rwanda Means the Universe, a multigenerational family memoir set against the backdrop of the 1994 genocide (soon to be released).

Unlearning Intolerance: 2:15 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. Open discussion between and among the day’s panellists, discussants and audience.

Registration is free.  The seminar is open to members of the public, non-governmental organizations and media representatives who register in advance.  Those in possession of a valid United Nations grounds pass, such as delegations of Member States, United Nations-affiliated non-governmental organizations and media representatives need not register.

Registration and ID pickup:  United Nations Visitors’ Lobby.  Enter at First Avenue and 46^th Street.

To register, please write, providing your name and affiliation, to:  Antonina Poliakova, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, e-mail:  poliakova@un.org, tel.:  +1 212 963-5698, fax: +1 212 963-4581.

For media accreditation, please visit www.un.org/media/accreditation/index.htm, Gary Fowlie, Chief, Media Accreditation and Liaison Unit, United Nations Headquarters, Room S-250, New York, N.Y. 10017, tel:  +1 2121963-6937, fax:  1 212-963-4642.

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For information media • not an official record