Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation

New York, April 23, 2012 – The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation commends the creation of the U.S. Atrocities Prevention Board, announced today by President Barack Obama at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington, DC.

Auschwitz Institute executive director Tibi Galis attended the Board’s rollout at the White House today. The event, moderated by National Security Council Senior Director for Multilateral and Humanitarian Affairs Samantha Power, the Board’s chair, featured three panel discussions, broadcast live over the web.

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New York, April 3, 2012 – The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) met in Buenos Aires last week with officials of 18 countries from Central and South America to launch the Latin American Network for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention.

The March 29 and 30 event—organized by AIPR in cooperation with Argentina's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Justice, Security and Human Rights, as well as the Secretariat for Human Rights of the Presidency of Brazil—set in motion an unprecedented region-wide initiative to prioritize prevention of genocide and mass atrocities by having civil servants from the network's 18 states undergo training in this area.

Participating states—Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela—also committed to establishing a national focal point within their government to coordinate policy and share information with other countries in the network.

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New York, Jan. 20, 2012 – In a major speech this week on the international community's efforts to combat mass atrocities, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for 2012 to be the Year of Prevention.

Ban, delivering the keynote address on Wednesday at a conference marking the 10th anniversary of the concept of Responsibility to Protect, told an audience of policymakers, diplomats, academics, and journalists, "the key to preventing genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and other crimes against humanity lies within each society. These crimes occur far less often in places where civil society is robust, where tolerance is practiced, and where diversity is celebrated. Political figures cannot incite mass violence for their own ends where the rights of minorities and the rule of law are respected."

Ban's words were fully in line with the philosophy behind the Auschwitz Institute's core program on genocide prevention, the Global Government edition of the Raphael Lemkin Seminar series, for government officials from around the world.

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If you met Tibi Galis on the street, you wouldn't guess what he does for a living. With a quick laugh, a wide smile, and a uniquely blended European accent that gives everything he says a tinge of optimism, Tibi currently serves as director of the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR), an organization dedicated to providing worldwide policymakers with the tools to prevent genocide in its earliest stages.

Each year, the AIPR brings experts, diplomats, military personnel, and academics from over 60 countries to their meetings and seminars, giving high-powered officials the chance to communicate openly and confidentially about issues that often go unnoticed. The hope is to challenge a statement Albert Einstein made in 1934, that “the brotherhood of the well-intentioned exists even though it is impossible to organize it anywhere.”

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