genocide

Annual Holocaust Commemoration: International DAy of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust

We are pleased to invite you to the annual Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, the central event organized in observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust and held under the theme Home and Belonging. The theme highlights the multidimensional human needs of victims of atrocity crimes and the dangers of hate speech, antisemitism, Holocaust distortion and denial, and prejudice.

The ceremony will take place in person for the first time since 2020. Those unable to attend in person will be able to watch the event virtually.

Speakers include the United Nations Secretary-General; the President of the 77th session of the General Assembly, the Permanent Representative of Israel to the United Nations, and the Deputy Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations. Renowned Holocaust historian Professor Debórah Dwork will deliver the keynote address. Mr. Jacques Grishaver of the Netherlands will share his testimony as a survivor of the Holocaust. Professor Ethel Brooks will speak to the persecution and mass murder of the Roma and Sinti. Professor Karen Frostig, granddaughter of victims of the Holocaust, and Michael Shaham, grandson of a Holocaust survivor, will present. Musicians include Ms. Shoshana Shattenkirk, Mr. Michael Shaham (who will perform on a Violin of Hope). Professor Renée Jolles will perform a piece for violin specially composed by Dr. Victoria Bond for the 2023 Holocaust Memorial Ceremony. Cantor Nissim Saal will recite the memorial prayer. Ms. Melissa Fleming, United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications, will host the event.

We look forward to having you join us, in person, or online. The event will be live-streamed.

Register to attend the Ceremony in-person

[monthly mtg] NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

Agenda for June 16, 2022

Zoom link: https://fordham.zoom.us/j/85797881478

1. Moment of Silence in Honor of the Land we are on and the Native Peoples of this Land

2. Welcome and Review of Agenda

3. Meeting Minutes of April 21, 2022

4. Report of the Executive Committee

5. Guest Speaker: Dan Baron Cohen is a community performance educator and eco-cultural activist of Welsh-Quebecois origin and has lived in Brazil since 1998 and in the Brazilian Amazonian city of Marabá since 2009. He has developed numerous programs with indigenous peoples of the Amazon/Brazil and worked with UNESCO and UNICEF. See below for more.

6. Update on Indigenous Health Subcommittee [Rashmi]

7. Update on the Education Subcommittee [Rick]

8. Other Items and Announcements

Guest speaker bio for Dan Baron Cohen, community educator and eco-cultural activist:

Dan works with Afro-Indigenous Youth in Amazonian region of Para, Brazil. The Rivers of Meeting education project, began by awakening sleeping cultural roots and human rights through Afro-Contemporary percussion, dance and lyrics workshops. Over 12 years, excluded youth were nurtured to become community workshop leaders and coordinators of medicinal plants, street library/cinema projects, dance and audiovisual companies, annual festival and workshop courses in their Community University of the Rivers, to defend the River Tocantins and nurture an eco-village based on eco-pedagogies for sustainable community.

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CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations. Likewise, for more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@yahoo.com or bknotts@uua.org. 

Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII)

Theme: Indigenous peoples, business, autonomy and the human rights principles of due diligence including free, prior and informed consent

Date: 25 April – 6 May 2022

Location: United Nations Headquarters, New York + online

The 2022 session of the Permanent Forum will be open to in-person and online participation. Each organization may register a maximum of three individuals.  Pre-registration is required for all in-person and online participants.  See information below about registration.

Note that all open meetings of the Forum will be streamed at webtv.un.org.  Viewing the live stream will not require any registration.

Side event listings: un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2022/04/Side-event-list-to-be-published-26-April.pdf

More info: un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples

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CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations.

International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust

Dear Colleague,

I am pleased to invite you to attend to the observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on Thursday, 27 January 2022 at 12 noon in Room XX the Palais des Nations, in accordance with General Assembly resolution 60/7 of 2005. English and French interpretation will be provided. This year, due to COVID-19, the ceremony will be exceptionally organized in a hybrid format, with a limited presence in the room.

Registration is now open for this commemoration under this link https://indico.un.org/event/37258/.

Once the seating capacity is reached, the registration for in-person participation will be closed and confirmation emails will be sent. Participation in person will be possible upon presentation of the confirmation e-mail only. The event will be webcast live on the UN Web TV platform http://webtv.un.org/ as well as on Facebook (@UNGeneva) to allow interested participants to attend the event virtually. The provisional programme of the commemoration is attached. I look forward to your participation in this ceremony.

Yours sincerely,

Tatiana Valovaya

NGO Liaison Unit, Political Affairs and Partnerships Section
Office of the Director-General, United Nations Office at Geneva
Palais des Nations

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Security, Peace, and Disarmament, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@yahoo.com or bknotts@uua.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org. 

NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples [regular mtg]

On behalf of the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please consider yourselves cordially invited to attend our next regular monthly meeting on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2021 at 1pm EST.

AGENDA

1. Moment of Silence in Honor of the Land we are on and the Native Peoples of this land

2. Welcome, Introductions and Review of Agenda

3. Meeting minutes of November 18, 2021

4. Report of the Executive Committee

5. Announcement – Secretariat Update by Elaine re: Indigenous Forum – April 25 – May 6

6. Speaker –Teresa Darder (invited) from Pointe au Chien in Lafourche Parish, Louisiana on the topic of fragile coastal areas – Intro by Joy

7. Film and Discussion – “Dawnland” –  Intro by Roberto

8. Resource – Native Network Consulting – LaVonne Peck & Nina Vandenburgh (invited) – Intro by Sandy

9. Other announcements

10. Next meeting will be held on Thursday January 20, 2022, 1-3 pm

Access the meeting here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2028703180

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CoNGO Notes: The NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a Substantive Committee of the Conference of NGOs in Consultative Relationship with the United Nations.

Remembering Past Massacres: Honoring the Legacy & Resilience of the Victims

Dear ecumenical friends,

The WCC/CCIA (Commission of the Churches on International Affairs) series of regional webinars focussing on REMEMBERING PAST MASSACRES: HONORING THE LEGACY AND RESILIENCE OF THE VICTIMS will take us this time to the Pacific. We hope you’ll join us! Please share in your networks.

Date: Monday 18 October 2021

Time: 9:00 – 10:30 AM CEST (i.e. 8AM Lagos, Nigeria / 2PM Bangkok, Thailand / 7 PM Suva, Fiji / 8PM Nakualofa, Tonga)

Speakers:

  • Rev. James Bhagwan, General Secretary, Pacific Conference of Churches
  • Danity Laukon, University of the South Pacific Marshall Islands
  • Taaitulagi Tuioti, Methodist Church in Samoa
  • Rev. Billy Wetewea, Protestant Church of Kanaky New Caledonia

Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_auNIo99OSg2-BSipSLGTMA

Learn more via Twitter or Facebook.

Objectives of the webinar:

This series of regional webinars is organized by the Commission of the Churches on International Affairs (CCIA) of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in collaboration with the WCC Spiritual Life. It is part of the many virtual events organised this year to mark the 75th anniversary of the CCIA. Realizing that several of these massacres have lost relevance over the years, or are simply forgotten, the purpose of these regional webinars is to reflect on how these fallen heroes and heroines are remembered and honoured today. Each webinar will be a moment of lament and will explore among others, the following questions:

  • How do we recognised these tragedies, and celebrate the survival, resistance, resilience, and heroes of these communities?
  • How do we honour their martyrdom?
  • What is done to prevent them from falling into amnesia or denial?
  • How do we memorialise these tragedies?
  • How do we transcend these past massacres and move towards healing?
  • How do we ensure that future generations learn from the past, ensuring that history will not be repeated?
  • What of reparations to descendants of these victims?
  • Are monuments sufficient even though they can be perceived as a reminder of trauma, and as memorials of symbolic reparations?

We offer these regional webinars in the hope that we will be empowered to elicit a promise and a pledge to ensure the non-recurrence of such human atrocities even as we celebrate the legacy of those who have survived these massacres.

Dates of regional webinars:

  • 27 August 2021: Africa
  • 27 September 2021: Spanish-speaking Americas
  • 11 October 2021: Asia
  • 18 October 2021: Pacific
  • 18 November 2021: Middle-East
  • 6 December 2021: Europe

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP.

Remembering Past Massacres: Honoring the legacy and resilience of the victims

The webinar, part of the ongoing “Remembering Past Massacres” series, will focus on Latin America, with speakers reflecting on the atrocities committed against Indigenous populations in the name of Christianization, the trans-Atlantic slave trade, the ruthless military dictatorships in South America during the 1960s-80s, and the 1937 massacre of Haitians in the Dominican Republic.

The webinar will be in Spanish and English.

Register here: us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_8Rd14QbmQkKa50EyZyGmyQ

Speakers include:

  • Moderator – Rev. Gloria Ulloa Alvarado, WCC President for Latin America
  • Co-facilitator – Rev. Dr. Mikie Roberts, WCC staff

Panellists:

  • Dr. Betty Ruth Lozano Lerma, Colombia
  • Nobel Peace Laureate Mr. Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Argentina
  • Prof. Dr. Jessica Byron-Reid, WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs member, Trinidad and Tobago

More info via social media:

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP. For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Social Development, please visit ngosocdev.org.

Restorative Justice, Intergenerational Healing, and Reconciliation

Join a Religions for Peace “Faithful Conversation”:

Restorative Justice, Intergenerational Healing, and Reconciliation

Religious and spiritual leaders in Canada and from across the globe share the profound sorrow and agony of indigenous communities as unmarked graves of indigenous children are found on the grounds of residential schools in Canada. Religious and spiritual leaders join Religions for Peace Honorary President Grand-Father Dominique Rankin, who himself is a victim and survivor of the physical and sexual abuse at a residential school, in a conversation to address how to advance peace with justice, heal the old wounds, and walk together the difficult path towards reconciliation. Register here!

Read the Religions for Peace World Council Statement here.

French-English interpretation will be available.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations, please visit rngos.wordpress.com.  For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP. For more information on the NGO Committee on Spirituality, Values, and Global Concerns-NY, please visit csvgc-ny.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on Intergenerational Solidarity, please email the vice chair at susanneseperson@gmail.com. 

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture

The UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture on 26 June marks the moment in 1987 when the UN Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, one of the key instruments in fighting torture, came into effect. Today, the Convention has been ratified by 162 countries.

Torture seeks to annihilate the victim’s personality and denies the inherent dignity of the human being. Despite the absolute prohibition of torture under international law, torture persist in all regions of the world. Concerns about protecting national security and borders are increasingly used to allow torture and other forms of cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment. Its pervasive consequences often go beyond the isolated act on an individual; and can be transmitted through generations and lead to cycles of violence.

The United Nations has condemned torture from the outset as one of the vilest acts perpetrated by human beings on their fellow human beings.

Torture is a crime under international law. According to all relevant instruments, it is absolutely prohibited and cannot be justified under any circumstances. This prohibition forms part of customary international law, which means that it is binding on every member of the international community, regardless of whether a State has ratified international treaties in which torture is expressly prohibited. The systematic or widespread practice of torture constitutes a crime against humanity.

On 12 December 1997, by resolution 52/149, the UN General Assembly proclaimed 26 June the United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, with a view to the total eradication of torture and the effective functioning of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

26 June is an opportunity to call on all stakeholders including UN Member States, civil society and individuals everywhere to unite in support of the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who have been victims of torture and those who are still tortured today.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Disarmament, Peace, and Security, please visit ngocdps.wordpress.com. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@gmail.com or bknotts@uua.org. For more information on the NGO Alliance on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, please visit crimealliance.org/about.

World Refugee Day

World Refugee Day 2021 focuses on the power of inclusion.

The shared experience of COVID-19 has showed us that we only succeed if we stand together. We have all had to do our part to keep each other safe and despite the challenges, refugees and displaced people have stepped up.

Given the chance, refugees will continue to contribute to a stronger, safer and more vibrant world. Therefore UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency’s World Refugee Day campaign this year is calling for the greater inclusion of refugees in health systems, schools and sport. Only by working together can we recover from the pandemic. Together we heal, learn and shine.

Background

Every minute 20 people leave everything behind to escape war, persecution or terror. There are several types of forcibly displaced persons:

Refugees

  • A refugee is someone who fled his or her home and country owing to “a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion”, according to the United Nations 1951 Refugee Convention. Many refugees are in exile to escape the effects of natural or human-made disasters.

Asylum Seekers

  • Asylum seekers say they are refugees and have fled their homes as refugees do, but their claim to refugee status is not yet definitively evaluated in the country to which they fled.

Internally Displaced Persons

  • Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) are people who have not crossed an international border but have moved to a different region than the one they call home within their own country.

Stateless Persons

  • Stateless persons do not have a recognized nationality and do not belong to any country. Statelessness situations are usually caused by discrimination against certain groups. Their lack of identification — a citizenship certificate — can exclude them from access to important government services, including health care, education or employment.

Returnees

  • Returnees are former refugees who return to their own countries or regions of origin after time in exile. Returnees need continuous support and reintegration assistance to ensure that they can rebuild their lives at home.

To learn more about how/why the UN commemorates this observance, including how the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol helps protect refugees, explore un.org/en/observances/refugee-day.

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CoNGO Notes: For more information on the NGO Committee on Migration, please visit ngo-migration.org. For more information on the NGO Committee on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, please visit facebook.com/NGOCoRIP. For more information on the NGO Committee on Human Rights, please email the co-chairs at bobbinassar@gmail.com or bknotts@uua.org. 

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