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Yehuda Bauer Grant

29.08.2016

Following the success of their Raphael Lemkin for Genocide Prevention seminars which first took place in 2008, the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) has turned its sights towards Latin America, supported by the IHRA Grant Programme.

“Alumni of the Raphael Lemkin seminar from countries in Latin America wanted to continue the work on genocide prevention and saw the creation of the Latin American Network for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention as a way of doing that. The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation assisted in the creation of this home-grown initiative and designed the Latin American Network Capacity Building Seminar for Genocide Prevention to deliver the curriculum,” explained the programme coordinator Stephanie Alvarez.

Launched in March 2012, the Latin American Network, the first regional forum of its kind in Latin America focusing on genocide and mass atrocity prevention, aims to foster capacity building and policy development in this field. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called the Latin American Network an effective “partnership for prevention.”

The Raphael Lemkin and Latin American seminars use the same methodology, but the content of the latter is tailored to the specific Latin American context because, “there is a similar shared history in Latin American countries with regard to memory, transitional justice and vulnerable groups,” according to the Director of the Program Eugenia Carbone. The 2016 seminar included government representatives from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay.

In 2015 the AIPR Latin American seminar project was awarded the IHRA Yehuda Bauer Grant for outstanding projects in light of the project’s important regional focus, and the prospect for sustainability due to the project's target group of governmental representatives.

An important component of the both the Raphael Lemkin and the Latin American seminars is the power of place. Part of the seminars take place at the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and State Museum. Discussing how participants react to the site of the former concentration and extermination camp, Stephanie Alvarez said: “Participants are deeply moved by the site and often comment on the excellent job the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum does in presenting the space. The visit to the site affects participants on a personal level and during the seminar we also offer a place for personal reflections where participants can discuss their feelings.”

Eugenia Carbone added that the visit to the site is used as a starting point to discuss the construction of “otherness” as a facet of discrimination from a psychological and sociological point of view and to explore the historical events from the position of the perpetrators.

For AIPR, the impact of the seminars can be measured by the number of participants they reach and the high rate of retention in the AIPR Alumni Network. Alumni meetings are held every three years and provide an opportunity for former participants to network, and share best practices.

An on-going study on mass atrocity prevention policy is currently underway and seeks to analyze how policy shifts relating to genocide and mass atrocity prevention can be traced back to the foundation of the Latin American Network, and in turn to the AIPR’s Latin American seminars.  The report will be published in 2017 and it is hoped that it will also be of assistance to countries outside of Latin American, aiding them in identifying best practices in policy making with regard to genocide prevention.

And what about the future? Eugenia Carbone explained that the seminars’ pilot program is now coming to an end.

“Based on our recent meeting in Uruguay, the seminars seem to have been very positively received and demand does not seem to be slowing down. Prevention through capacity building is one of the pillars of the Latin American Network and the Latin American seminars are a practical and effective tool to support this objective.”

The IHRA Grant Programme aims to strengthen the political commitment of governments in order to ensure future generations will understand the causes of the Holocaust and reflect upon its consequences with a view to preventing genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism, and xenophobia. It runs each year from September to January and in 2015 the IHRA Grant Programme awarded 18 grants. Information about criteria and applying for grants can be found on the IHRA website.