Announcements and Recent Analysis

A Bipartisan Resolution for Genocide Prevention

On December 22, 2010, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed S.Con.Res.71, a non-binding resolution that recognizes genocide prevention as a national security interest of the United States and urges the President and senior government leaders to rededicate efforts to “anticipate, prevent, and mitigate acts of genocide and other mass atrocities.” With a coalition of over a half-dozen organizations, the anti-genocide community worked actively to support the resolution’s passage.  

State Department Review Names Prevention of Genocide a Priority

Judge Buergenthal on the Challenges of International Justice

On the eve of the anniversary of the genocide convention, the Museum hosted a discussion with Judge Thomas Buergenthal, a Holocaust survivor who has devoted his life to finding justice and protecting human rights for people throughout the world. A pioneer of international law, Judge Buergenthal served for the last decade as the American judge for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principle judicial organ of the United Nations.  

Museum Joins with Ben Affleck to Raise Awareness about the Congo

In an event last night co-hosted by the Museum, Ben Affleck and Senator John Kerry came together with a panel of experts to speak about policy options for resolving the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, a U.S. based advocacy and grant-making group, Ben Affleck spoke about the need to unite peacemaking efforts in eastern Congo and to do so now, before Congolese elections in 2011 raise additional new challenges.  

U.S. and French Holocaust Museums Convene Genocide Prevention Symposium

“We know the unthinkable is thinkable. What do we do with that knowledge?” Sara Bloomfield, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, asked an audience of human rights experts, conflict prevention specialists, and senior diplomats representing more than 20 governments. The group gathered in Paris on Monday to discuss how members of the international community could work together to prevent genocide and mass atrocities.  

“If there is war, I will be used to it.”

In an op-ed in the Boston Globe, Mike Abramowitz, Director of the Museum's genocide prevention program, and Andrew Natsios, former U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, discuss the definitive moment ahead for southern Sudan, as the region prepares to vote in a referendum on independence, and the hopeful possibility that peace is within reach. Abramowitz and Natsios traveled to southern Sudan on a Museum-sponsored bearing witness trip. To learn more about their observations and experiences, read the trip report or view photographs.

Stories from South Sudan: A Film Excerpt

From November 8 to 10, 2010, the Holocaust Museum will project building-size images of life in South Sudan onto the Museum's exterior walls on 15th Street. Taken by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lucian Perkins on a recent Museum-sponsored trip, these images bear witness to the risks ahead for the Sudanese, as the South prepares to vote in a referendum on independence in January 2011.  

A Report on the Museum’s Bearing Witness Trip to Sudan

From September 19 to October 3, 2010, Mike Abramowitz, Director of the Museum’s Committee on Conscience, and Andrew Natsios, former Special Envoy to Sudan, traveled throughout South Sudan to assess the region’s conditions as it prepares for the January 9 referendum on independence from the North. They were joined by Lucian Perkins, a prize-winning photographer and journalist.  

More of the Same in Bosnia?

On October 3rd, Bosnian citizens voted in a bewildering array of elections at the federal and entity level (Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation) that reflected the nation's troubling, deep divisions. Voters from the Bosniak-Croat Federation largely turned to moderate politicians, while Bosnian Serbs re-elected their nationalist party, which continues to call openly for secession.  

Museum Reacts to new UN Report on Congo

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum today reacted to the new United Nations report on human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the report outlines the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in the DRC between 1993 and 2003 and offers a range of transitional justice options to deal with the legacy of the crimes.