Webinar: Lemkin, Genocide, and the Modern World

Zapraszamy na webinar w języku angielskim „Lemkin, Genocide, and the Modern World” z udziałem uznanych międzynarodowych naukowców, którzy omówią postać Rafaela Lemkina oraz konwencję o ludobójstwie w świetle niedawnej rosyjskiej agresji na Ukrainie. Webinar odbędzie się 1 grudnia od godz. 18:00. 

Lemkin był polskim prawnikiem pochodzenia żydowskiego, który przeżył II wojnę światową. Znany jest jako ojciec koncepcji „ludobójstwa” jako przestępstwa i był kluczową osobą stojąca za Konwencją ONZ przeciwko ludobójstwu.

Rejestracja: https://cohenseglias.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DzMHINiyQeOgvt-1Fkr7XQ 

He was a complex person with divided loyalties and life experiences that influenced his work. He is often portrayed as a lone ranger, but he was quite effective in gaining support for his ideas, especially among women groups who made the Convention possible. Lemkin had a complex relationship with Stalin, among others, which is largely forgotten.

While modern applications of the Genocide Convention have been quite limited, Poland is one of the few countries where such prosecutions were successful and started early, and one of our speakers can elucidate how European countries were successful in using the Genocide Convention to prosecute crimes.

Russian aggression against Ukraine has many indicia of “genocide,” and we will discuss potential uses of the Convention to prosecute the crime of “genocide” and “incitement to genocide” as it applies to crimes committed by the Russians.

The first part of the webinar is on December 1st, and the second is the third week of January

One can register right now. There is no charge. CLE credits are available. The poster for the event is attached above.

Speakers

Professor Donna Lee-Frieze (Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, Genocide Studies scholar specializing in memory and aftermath studies, with a focus on the Stolen Generations, the Armenian genocide, the Holocaust, and the Bosnian genocide.

Editor of Raphael Lemkin’s autobiography Totally Unofficial (Yale 2013). Topic: Lemkin, his Polish-Jewish roots and his identity, and the role of women’s organizations in enacting Lemkin’s idea of the crime of genocide as the U.N. Genocide Convention.

Professor Doug Irvin-Erickson (Assistant Professor of political science and history of law, Carter School Director of the Genocide Prevention Program, G. Mason University), author of Raphaël Lemkin and the Concept of Genocide, Univ of Pennsylvania Press, 2017, https://douglasirvinerickson.org/). Topic: Lemkin and the Soviets: Political History of the U.N. Genocide Convention

Professor A. Dirk Moses (Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of Political Science at the City College of New York, CUNY. His first book, German Intellectuals, and the Nazi Past (2007), was awarded the H-Soz-Kult „Historical Book of the Year” prize for contemporary history. He has written extensively about genocide and global history. Recent anthologies include Postcolonial Conflict and the Question of Genocide(2018), The Holocaust in Greece (2018), and Decolonization, Self-Determination, and the Rise of Global Human Rights Politics (2020), more info at https://www.dirkmoses.com/). Topic: Axis Rule in Occupied Europe and Lemkin’s intellectual debts in writing it.

Professor Roman Kwiecien (Professor and Chair, Dept of Int’l law, Jagiellonian University, an arbitrator at the Permanent Court of Arbitration (the Hague) and an arbitrator at the Court of Conciliation and Arbitration within the OSCE (Geneva), recent publication Aggression and Responsibility Under International Law – A Case of the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine, „Osteuropa-Recht” 2022). Topic: Crime of genocide under the International Court of Justice’s approach.

Professor Marcin Marcinko (Professor of Law, Jagiellonian University, Chairman of the National Commission for Dissemination of International Humanitarian Law at the Main Board of the Polish Red Cross, and a lecturer and co-organizer of the Polish School of International Humanitarian Law of Armed Conflict, two recent publications: „A little war that shook the Court”: Comment on the judgment of the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Georgia v. Russia (II) of January 21st 2021, „Polish Review of International and European Law” 2022, Vol. 11, Issue 1, p. 117–149, and The legal status of civil defense organization during armed conflict and belligerent occupation, „Security. Theory and Practice” 2022, No. 3 (XLVIII), p. 323–335). Topic: The crime of genocide in the jurisprudence of the Polish Supreme National Tribunal (it may be worth reminding the U.S. audiences that genocide prosecution did not start at Nuremberg and Poland has a significant contribution here).

Ivan Horodyskyy, J.D., a Ukrainian lawyer who co-authored a book on Lemkin, which was to be published this year, but because of the Russian invasion, the publication was postponed till early next year, both in Ukraine and in Canada, in English. Topic: Genocide and prosecution of crimes committed in Ukraine.

Dr. Markiyan Bem, a former European Court of Human Rights lawyer from Ukraine, obtained a Ph.D. on Lemkin’s genocide conception. Topic: Crime of genocide and incitement to genocide, Ukraine, the U.N. Genocide Convention, ICC jurisdiction, and special tribunals.

The registration link is as follows: 

https://cohenseglias.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_DzMHINiyQeOgvt-1Fkr7XQ