Genocide Prevention 25

A Genocide Remembrance, Prevention and Condemnation Event

March 30th 2025- April 30th 2025

In a world where the scars of past genocides remain and new threats grow, we, the Alliance of Genocide Victim Communities, stand together for justice, remembrance, and prevention. The "Genocide Prevention 25" event is a powerful call to action—to face the impact of genocide here in Canada and work toward a future without it. #GenocidePrevention

Reverberate | A Genocide Prevention Conference

Art Exhibit exploring the genocide experiences of Uyghur, Tutsi, Tibetan, Tigrayan, Hazara and Tamil communities.

Justice, Human Rights and Human Dignity on the Horizon, A Parliamentary Seminar. Our call to action for Canadian Parliamentarians and Parliamentary Candidates from Canadian survivors of atrocity crimes during an election season.

A Genocide Prevention Conference

Scholarly Voices

Dr. Gregory Stanton
Founder and President of Genocide Watch

n this eye-opening seminar, the founder of Genocide Watch reveals why the United Nations has failed to stop genocide and war—and what must change to prevent future atrocities. From helping create the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide to writing key UN resolutions himself, Dr. Stanton takes us behind the scenes of global diplomacy, law, and power. He exposes how the PERM-5 veto cripples the Security Council, why the Genocide Convention was born toothless, and how the lack of a UN military or police force allows genocidaires to walk free. Dr. Stanton lays out a bold, actionable vision to end genocide and build a world where justice, empathy, and peace triumph over hatred and war. From challenging the UN’s broken system to empowering women and faith communities to lead the fight, Dr. Stanton weaves law, history, anthropology, and poetry into a call for nothing less than a global movement—as big and unstoppable as the fight against slavery. 💥 What You'll Learn:

Why the PERM-5 veto makes the Security Council powerless
How the Genocide Convention was designed to fail—and what it takes to fix it
Why the International Criminal Court has no teeth
How we can rewrite the UN Charter and build an international police force
Why women, faith communities, and empathy are key to ending genocide
How Nazism is rising again—and what we must do to stop it
Why justice is love, and political will is built from the ground up

Quotes to Remember:

“We need to rewrite the UN Charter.” “Genocide is idolatry—we sacrifice human beings to our gods of race, religion, and nationalism.”

“Courts without police are powerless. The ICC can’t arrest anyone” “Women don’t plan genocides. Men do.”

“The Pope supports the anti-genocide movement.” “Justice is the antidote to abandonment.”

“Nazism is rising—in Russia, China, and the United States.”

“Political will is not magic. It is built. And it is time to build it again.”

Professor John Packer

Director of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa

“Some Reflections on the Imperative of Actually Preventing Genocide (And How to Do It)”

Why do we keep saying "we didn’t know" — when we absolutely did? In this powerful presentation, international human rights scholar and jurist Professor John Packer confronts the global failures to prevent genocide — from Rwanda to Myanmar, from Indigenous communities in Canada to crisis zones around the world. With piercing clarity, he challenges the myth that we lack information, exposing how governments, institutions, and legal systems fail not from ignorance, but from choice.

Drawing on his UN experience and decades of advocacy, Prof. Packer explores:

The illegal use of force under the UN Charter
Why teaching empathy is under attack
The clear warnings before Rwanda — and why they were ignored
What the Genocide Convention actually says (it's simpler than you think)
How we already know who’s at risk — and still do nothing
What real prevention looks like
And why “if only we knew” is the biggest lie in international politics
The dark complicity of Canadian institutions
How global treaties are ignored or twisted
The myth of needing “10,000 deaths” for genocide
Why early warning is being ignored—and what you can do about it
The one institution in the world focused on preventing violence against minorities
The chilling erasure of testimonies and historical truth

"We live in an age of real-time atrocity updates. We know. We always know. The question is — what will we do about it?"

Why haven’t the perpetrators of known genocides been brought to justice? Why do so many genocides go unacknowledged—even when admitted by heads of state? And how are major institutions, including Canadian universities and governments, directly complicit?

From Canada’s unpunished legacy of residential schools to China’s treatment of the Uyghurs—and why the International Court of Justice has only acted a handful of times in 75 years—this speech pulls no punches.

David Matas

International human rights lawyer, co-founder and chair of Human Rights Action Group

Sarah Teich

International human rights lawyer, co-founder and CEO of Human Rights Action Group

What does justice look like after genocide? International human rights lawyer and Order of Canada recipient David Matas delivers a gripping and insightful presentation on the legal, moral, and human imperative to pursue justice—even when courts fail, perpetrators hide, and political will is absent.

From Rwanda and South Africa to China and Sri Lanka, Matas breaks down:

Why justice for genocide is more than just prosecutions
The untapped power of truth, prevention, and civil liability
How silence and impunity lead to future atrocities
Whether you're a student, activist, survivor, or just someone who believes in human dignity—this is a must-watch.

Award-winning international human rights lawyer Sarah Teich—now blacklisted by Russia and China—breaks down the global fight for justice, accountability, and the rule of law in the face of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

You'll learn:

🔹 What the ICC really does—and why it matters

🔹 How civil society can push the world’s only permanent criminal court into action

🔹 Why the ICJ is different—and how it’s shaping international law

🔹 The untold power of People’s Tribunals in giving voice to the voiceless

🔹 How survivors and activists are fighting back when the system fails

Timestamp:

0:00 - Introduction and the speaker's background on the topic

0:24 - The role of the ICC and its process of investigating and prosecuting individuals

3:03 - Challenges faced by the ICC, including political pressure and lack of state cooperation

5:34 - Civil society's involvement in the ICC process, from submitting communications to advocacy

6:59 - Introduction to the ICJ and its role in settling disputes between states

8:15 - Ad hoc mechanisms and tribunals for addressing specific crises

9:30 - The role of people's tribunals in bringing justice to the voiceless

11:52 - The collective responsibility of civil society to ensure accountability and justice

Survivor Voices

Trauma, Resilience, and Healing: A Brief Message to Attendees” | Appoline Nimbeshaho, Trauma Therapist & Genocide Survivor, Founder of Tranquil Minds Psychotherapy and Beyond The Veil.

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First-hand survivor testimony.

In this raw testimony, Pascal Kenyemara, President of the Humura Association and survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, shares his personal story of loss, survival, and resilience.

At just 15 years old, Pascal’s life was shattered when state-sponsored militias swept through Rwanda with a goal to eliminate the Tutsi people. His father, brothers, uncles, aunts, cousins — all murdered. Only his mother and sisters survived. Hiding in schools, fleeing to refugee camps, and surviving a planned massacre that was only stopped by a car breaking down — his survival is nothing short of miraculous.

Pascal’s voice joins others from communities still fighting today — from the Hazara, Tigrayan, Uyghur, Tamil, and Tibetan people and beyond. It's a reminder that genocide is not history — it’s a recurring nightmare that must be stopped. His message is clear: Never Again means taking action. Together. This is why the Alliance of Genocide Victim Communities exists and why we hosted the Reverberate Genocide Prevention conference to mark Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation, and Prevention Month.

Community Overviews of Genocide

In this session, we will briefly explore genocide through the experience of the Uyghur, Tutsi, Tamil, Tigrayan, Tibetan, and Hazara communities. During each 5-minute segment, we will delve into key statistics, the years these tragic events occurred, and identify the primary actors involved in these atrocities.

Community Overviews of Genocide

Hazara Genocide

“They say we don’t belong. They bomb our schools. They tear down our graves. But we are still here.”

This testimony from Dr. Tahir Shaaran at the Reverberate Genocide Prevention Conference shines a light on one of the most underreported genocides of our time—the systematic destruction of the Hazara people in Afghanistan:

💔 For over 130 years, the Hazara have been massacred, displaced, enslaved, and erased—first by kings, now by the Taliban, ISIS, and extremists.

⚠️ Since 2021, over 60 targeted attacks have slaughtered Hazara in schools, mosques, maternity wards—anywhere life and community gather.

🚨 Cultural genocide: historical monuments demolished, Hazara graveyards destroyed, identity criminalized.

👩‍🦱 Hazara women face gender apartheid and triple persecution—for being Hazara, for being Shia, for being women.

🗣️ Even Taliban officials openly call for Hazara extermination.

This is genocide in real time. And the world has barely noticed.

Masuma Khawari breaks the silence on a genocide hidden behind gender apartheid. This searing, first-hand testimony from Reverberate 2025 exposes the brutal intersecting oppression faced by Hazara women in Afghanistan—targeted not just for being women, but for their ethnicity and faith.

What’s happening right now:

Hazara women are being arrested, tortured, and killed simply for existing.
A maternity hospital was stormed—newborns and mothers shot in cold blood.
Formerly leaders in politics, education, and the arts—Hazara women are now banned from schools, jobs, even humanitarian aid.
Taliban officials openly declare Hazara women’s lives worthless.

This is not just gender apartheid. This is genocide. And yet, the world continues to look away.

Masuma Khawari, speaking from lived experience, demands global attention: “The lives—and future—of Hazara women depend on what we do next.”

Uyghur Genocide

Kayum Masimov exposes the tech-driven horror unfolding in Xinjiang—right now. This isn’t history. This is genocide happening in real time. In this session from the Reverberate Genocide Prevention Conference, human rights advocate Kayum Masimov pulls back the curtain on China’s brutal campaign against the Uyghur people—a campaign powered by artificial intelligence, mass surveillance, and global apathy.

Inside the Uyghur Genocide:

AI-powered surveillance 24/7, even inside homes
Cameras in your living room. Spy apps required on your phone.
Sent to police for using the back door too often.
Overseas calls = interrogation.
Concentration camps have “mutated” into forced labour pipelines.
Products made by Uyghur slave labour are sold in Canadian stores—we are complicit.

Masimov calls for a 7th genocide marker: Technology. It didn’t exist in 1948 when the Genocide Convention was written—but it must be added today.

🇨🇦 Canada was the first country in the world to recognize the Uyghur genocide.

But as Kayum warns: “Unless civil society pushes—governments won’t act.”

Don’t look away. Demand action.

🔗 End imports tainted by Uyghur forced labour.

✊🏽 Support Uyghur refugees.

Tigray Genocide

"What more do we need to prove it's genocide?"

Yohannes Abraha (X profile) delivers a searing account of the Tigray Genocide at the Reverberate Genocide Prevention Conference.

In just two years (2020–2022), over 1 million Tigrayans were killed, countless women and girls gang raped, and an entire region deliberately starved, cut off from aid, and erased from public life. From firsthand accounts of massacres and dehumanization to official government speeches calling for the extermination of Tigrayans, Yohannes lays bare the horrifying truth: this was not collateral damage—it was a state-orchestrated campaign of extermination.

🚫 Blocked aid.

📵 Telecom blackouts.

🏥 87% of hospitals destroyed.

🗣️ Tigrayans labelled as "cancer", “garbage,” and “junta.”

📚 Students, athletes, and civil servants were erased from national life.

Despite mountains of evidence—even acknowledged by U.S. officials—the world still refuses to call it what it is.

“Just get us recognition. We’ll take it from there.”

Tutsi Genocide

The Tutsi Genocide Didn’t Start With Machetes — It Started With IDs

In this raw talk, genocide survivor Pascal Kenyemara (Humura Association) takes us back through the deeply buried colonial roots of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide—how Belgian colonizers used ID cards, ethnic labelling, and division to turn neighbour against neighbour.

📜 From the monarchy to colonization

⚖️ From privilege to resentment

🔥 From marginalization to massacre, Pascal reveals how a country that spoke one language, shared one culture, and lived side by side was torn apart by a brutal strategy of divide and conquer.

“To go to high school, they had to measure your ethnicity.”

“If we kill the Tutsi inside the country, the ones outside won’t dare to return.”

This is not just a lesson in history.

It’s a blueprint for how genocide is engineered—and why we must never stop warning the world. .

Tamil Genocide

What happens when history is buried and survivors are ignored?

Roy Wignarajah, a Tamil genocide survivor and human rights advocate, takes the stage at the Reverberate Genocide Prevention Conference to reveal the untold truth about the Tamil genocide and the Sri Lankan civil war— a brutal campaign that has lasted decades, from state-sanctioned massacres to the starvation and disappearance of over 146,000 Tamils.

Roy breaks down:

💥 Why genocide isn’t just about killing

📜 The five stages of genocide the Tamil people endured

🌍 The global complicity — including 39 countries aiding a war on civilians

🛑 How the UN, Canada, and the world have failed justice

🔥 And why solidarity across victim communities is the only way forward

This is not just a story of the past — it's a call to action for today. For truth. For accountability. For justice.

Tibet Genocide

“164 Tibetans lit their bodies on fire — and the world stayed silent.”

Sherap Therchin of the Canada Tibet Committee breaks the silence around China’s decades-long campaign to erase Tibetan identity — from forced boarding schools and cultural cleansing to spiritual colonization through the battle for the Dalai Lama’s succession. What began as genocide in the 1960s continues today through systemic erasure, forced assimilation, and spiritual control.

What you’ll hear in this urgent testimony:

- Why Tibetans have turned to self-immolation as a last form of resistance

- How the Chinese Communist Party is trying to control reincarnation

- The mass indoctrination of Tibetan children in state-run boarding schools

- The forced removal of Tibetan nomads from ancestral lands

Why international silence empowers authoritarianism — and how we must fight back

“They sanctioned us for defending our people. That means we’re doing something right.”

Sherap and his colleagues were sanctioned by China for telling the truth. This is what courage looks like, and it fuels our collective fight for justice.

Tell me more about the historical genocide in Tibet

“Hot off the Press, Community News Roundup: Insights from Six Communities” | 6 community representatives have 10-minute segments.

From transnational repression, deportations, and surveillance to restrictions on humanitarian aid, mishandled withdrawal plans in Afghanistan, and ongoing atrocities against Hazaras, as well as escalating tensions in Ethiopia, the ongoing conflict in Congo, inadequate refugee resettlement initiatives, and the targeted sanctioning of Canadian activists—this session explores community perspectives on these urgent and newsworthy issues.

Panel discussion | “Safeguarding Humanity: Strategies for Genocide Prevention, Pathways to Accountability and Canada’s Role.” 6 community representatives.

In this session, our six community representatives will propose strategies for the government of Canada to improve justice and accountability and will also discuss ways in which fellow Canadians can contribute to these efforts.

Panel Discussion | Aftermath of Genocide and Its Community Impacts - Echoes of Resilient Spirits.

6 community representatives

Discussions will focus on the lingering impact of genocide on communities. Representatives will exchange observations, reports and ideas, highlight healing initiatives and any efforts to combat discrimination and promote understanding, tolerance, and acceptance among their diverse communities.

The Honourable Irwin Cotler, P.C., O.C., Former Minister of Justice & Attorney General of Canada. Founder and International chair of Raoul Wallenberg Centre.

In this deeply moving and urgent keynote address Hon. Irwin Cotler delivers a must-hear warning about the rising tide of genocides and mass atrocities in the 21st century.

From Rwanda to Ukraine, Xinjiang to Tibet, Cotler exposes the “Axis of Aggression” — Russia, China, Iran, and their proxies — and makes a compelling case for global action rooted in empathy, memory, justice, and the Responsibility to Protect.

Silence, denial, and indifference are no longer options. This is a wake-up call.

👉 Watch until the end for an 8-point action plan that every government, civil society group, and citizen can support to stop genocide — before it’s too late.

Interactive Exhibits

Misinformation Toolkit

In a world where misinformation and digital manipulation are widespread, our free portable “Truth Tracker Toolkit for Countering Misinformation” provides essential resources to help you separate fact from fiction, think critically, and protect yourself from deceptive tactics.

Forced Labour Challenge: Uyghur Genocide

This hands-on activity unravels the hidden truths of global supply chains. Explore the unsettling reality of forced labor within the Uyghur genocide and how these products end up in Canada.

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Remember Tigray: A Virtual Reality Experience

Between 2020 and 2022, the Tigray War caused an estimated 600,000 deaths, leading the New York Times to describe it in November 2022 as "one of the world's bloodiest contemporary conflicts." Follow Mahlet, a survivor of sexual violence, as her story of trauma and resilience unfolds through powerful 360-degree footage filmed inside Tigray.

Remembrance Wall: Honoring Their Names

Our Remembrance Wall is a sacred space dedicated to those we carry in our hearts. Attendees are invited to write the name of someone they are thinking of during this conference—whether a loved one lost to genocide, a survivor, or someone whose courage and resilience inspire them. Each name becomes part of a collective tribute, a powerful reminder that their stories are not forgotten. Together, we honor their memory and reaffirm our commitment to justice, remembrance, and hope.

Words of Hope

A space for reflection, resilience, and solidarity. Here, allies and genocide survivors share heartfelt messages of compassion for those enduring suffering today. Participants are invited to write private notes of solace and encouragement, placing them in a collective box. These sentiments will be documented, shared online, and woven into a powerful collective poem—a living testament to unity, strength, and hope. Join us in amplifying voices of resilience and standing in solidarity with those who need it most.

Art Exhibit

Exhibit Title: Echoes of Resilience: A Tapestry of Survival
Exploring the transformative power of art—moving from memory and reflection towards actionable change.

“Echoes of Resilience” serves as both a memorial and an educational beacon—an art collection that not only honors the painful histories of genocide but also celebrates the unyielding spirit and cultural richness of the Tigrayan, Uyghur, Hazara, Tamil, Tibetan and Tutsi communities.

This thoughtful synthesis of art and history is intended to inspire reflection, dialogue, and ultimately, hope for a future defined by understanding and unity.

📍 Where: Human Rights Research and Education Centre, Fauteux Hall (5th floor)

When: March 30th - April 31st 2025

Justice, Human Rights and Human Dignity on the Horizon

A Parliamentary Seminar.

A Call to Action for Canadian Parliamentarians and Parliamentary Candidates from Canadian Survivors of Atrocity Crimes during an Election Season.

Monday, March 31st, 2025 | 10 AM - 11 AM ET

Human Rights Research and Education Centre,

Fauteux Hall, 5th floor, FTX559

57 Louis-Pasteur Private, Ottawa, ON