Genocide Prevention Group (Canada)

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The All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and other Crimes Against Humanity (the Genocide Prevention Group) is an informal group of Parliamentarians composed of members from all parties in the House of Commons of Canada and the Senate of Canada with an interest in the prevention of genocide and similar crimes against humanity.

Contents

Origins

The group was founded in 2006 by a group of parliamentarians with Senator Roméo Dallaire as its founder. [1] It was inspired by the success of a similar parliamentary group in the United Kingdom and grew out of the Save Darfur Coalition initiated in 2006. [2]

Mandate

The mandate of the Genocide Prevention Group is to: [3]

  1. Ensure that the government of Canada galvanizes to prevent and protect civilian populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, and the incitement to such crimes in accordance with the principles of "The Responsibility to Protect (R2P)"
  2. Increase the flow of information and analysis to parliamentarians about genocide and other crimes against humanity;
  3. Promote understanding of the importance of long-term approaches to genocide prevention; and
  4. Engage in communication and collaboration with like-minded bodies in civil society and other Parliaments in order to:
  • Exchange information about strategies for the prevention of genocide and other crimes against humanity;
  • Work in conjunction with the United Nations Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide, the International Criminal Court, and other organizations working in the field of Genocide prevention and post conflict justice; and
  • create international channels for the timely exchange of information regarding emerging crises that have a potentially genocidal component.

Members

Membership in the Genocide Prevention Group is open to all Parliamentarians. There are currently about twenty official members of the Genocide Prevention Group, with some sixty parliamentarians who participate in events hosted by the Genocide Prevention Group.

Executive

The Executive is composed of a Chair, three Vice-Chairs, one from each of the parties represented at Parliament, and an ex officio member. The Group is currently chaired by Member of Parliament Ali Ehsassi and the vice-chairs are as follows: Garnett Genuis, MP (Conservative); Ruby Sahota, MP (Liberal); and Cheryl Hardcastle, MP (NDP). The former chair and ex officio member is Lt.-Gen Roméo Dallaire, Senator.

Current areas of concern

The Genocide Prevention Group is currently monitoring a range of ongoing and developing situations, as well as emerging fields in genocide prevention and mass atrocity monitoring. The group has recently been involved with the W2I Project run by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies. [4]

Funding

Due to the unofficial nature of the Genocide Prevention Group, the group does not receive Parliamentary funding. It is funded by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and the Genocide Prevention Group's membership fees. . [5]

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Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people in whole or in part. In 1948, the United Nations Genocide Convention defined genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group. Victims are targeted because of their real or perceived membership of a group, not randomly.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roméo Dallaire</span> Canadian retired general and politician (b. 1946)

Roméo Antonius Dallaire is a Canadian retired politician and military officer who was a senator from Quebec from 2005 to 2014, and a lieutenant-general in the Canadian Armed Forces. He notably served as the force commander of UNAMIR, the ill-fated United Nations peacekeeping force for Rwanda between 1993 and 1994, and for trying to stop the genocide that was being waged by Hutu extremists against Tutsis and Hutu moderates. Dallaire is a Senior Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) and Co-Director of the MIGS Will to Intervene Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Théoneste Bagosora</span> Rwandan military officer (1941–2021)

Théoneste Bagosora was a Rwandan military officer. He was chiefly known for his key role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide for which he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). In 2011, the sentence was reduced to 35 years' imprisonment on appeal. He was due to be imprisoned until he was 89. According to René Lemarchand, Bagosora was "the chief organizer of the killings". On 25 September 2021, he died in a prison hospital in Mali, where he was being treated for heart issues.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">International criminal law</span> Public international law

International criminal law (ICL) is a body of public international law designed to prohibit certain categories of conduct commonly viewed as serious atrocities and to make perpetrators of such conduct criminally accountable for their perpetration. The core crimes under international law are genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.

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Gregory H. Stanton is the former Research Professor in Genocide Studies and Prevention at the George Mason University in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. He is best known for his work in the area of genocide studies. He is the founder and president of Genocide Watch, the founder and director of the Cambodian Genocide Project, and the Chair of the Alliance Against Genocide. From 2007 to 2009 he was the president of the International Association of Genocide Scholars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Legality of Holocaust denial</span> Laws against Holocaust denial

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Brand (politician)</span> German politician

Michael Brand is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

The Will to Intervene (W2I) Project is a research initiative created by Lieut. General (retired) Roméo Dallaire, Senior Fellow at the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), and Dr. Frank Chalk, MIGS Director, that aims to operationalize the principles of the responsibility to protect within national governments.

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The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) is a research institute based at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1986 and promotes human rights awareness, in the field of genocide and mass atrocities by hosting frequent events, publishing policy briefs, engaging in counter activism on the web, and many other programs. Its keystone project is the Will to Intervene (W2I) Project which, under the advisement of Lt. General Roméo Dallaire and MIGS' Director Frank Chalk, builds domestic political will in Canada and the United States to prevent future mass atrocities.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Ehsassi</span> Canadian politician

Ali Cyrus Ehsassi is a Canadian politician currently serving as a Liberal Member of Parliament for Willowdale, Ontario riding of Willowdale in the House of Commons of Canada in the 2015 federal election. Ehsassi's victory marked a historical milestone, as he is one of the first two Canadians of Iranian heritage to ever be elected to Canada's federal Parliament, with the other being Majid Jowhari.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Genocide prevention</span> Any act or actions that works toward averting future genocides

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References

  1. ↑ "L.Gen Roméo Dallaire". Archived from the original on 2010-03-09. Retrieved 2009-11-17.
  2. ↑ "About". All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity|Groupe parlementaire multipartite pour la prévention du génocide et autres crimes contre l'humanité. 2009-07-20. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  3. ↑ "About". All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and Other Crimes Against Humanity|Groupe parlementaire multipartite pour la prévention du génocide et autres crimes contre l'humanité. 2009-07-20. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  4. ↑ "The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS)". www.concordia.ca. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
  5. ↑ "The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS)". www.concordia.ca. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
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