Tag Archives: Memorial

Rwandan genocide, 30 years on: Omitting women’s memories encourages incomplete understanding of violence

*A father is searching for his missing child using ICRC assistance during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. Photo: British Red Cross/flickr/CC*

By Anneliese M. Schenk-Day, Ohio State University. Published 4-5-2024 by The Conversation

The eruption of violence that Rwanda experienced beginning on the evening of April 6, 1994, continues to haunt the central African nation 30 years on – it has also changed the country’s gender dynamics.

The genocide resulted in hundreds of thousands of men being killed, with many more fleeing the country or being incarcerated. It left a previously male-centered society with hundreds of thousands of female-headed households. Of course, women were also subjected to the violence itself, with many killed and between 250,000 and 500,000 raped in the three months of genocide.

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Instead of Holocaust Museum, Detour Signs Direct Israel’s Herzog to The Hague

“How is it possible that such a sacred space is being used to normalize genocide today?” asked one Dutch Jewish organizer behind the protest.

By Common Dreams. Published 3-10-24

Human rights activists of Amnesty International hold traffic boards showing the way to the International Criminal Court for the President of Israel, Isaac Herzog on March 10, 2024 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Over 30,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The President of Israel is in Amsterdam to open the Holocaust Museum. Photo: Trita Parsi/X

Human rights activists in The Netherlands greeted Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Sunday with large protests and directed him towards the International Criminal Court at The Hague over his nation’s alleged war crimes against the Palestinian people in the Occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Herzog was in Amsterdam to attend the opening of the new National Holocaust Museum, but demonstrators said Herzog’s presence needed to be challenged given the large scale death and destruction that Israel’s military has unleashed in Gaza over the last five months.

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Russian Authorities Told Rights Group to Reject Nobel Peace Prize, Says Leader

The decision to recognize Memorial alongside a Ukrainian group and Belarusian activist, said Yan Rachinsky, “is remarkable precisely because it shows that civil society is not divided by national borders.”

By Jessica Corbett. Published 12-10-2022 by Common Dreams

Representatives of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates for 2022 pose with their medals and diplomas. Ales Bialiatski was represented by Natallia Pinchuk; Memorial was represented by Jan Rachinsky; and the Center for Civil Liberties was represented by Oleksandra Matviichuk. (Photo: Jo Straube/Nobel Prize Outreach)

An embattled Russian rights group that received this year’s Nobel Peace Prize was pressured by the Kremlin to decline the honor because of the Ukrainian organization and jailed Belarusian activist who also received the award, BBC News revealed Saturday.

“We were advised by our authorities to turn down this prize because they deemed co-laureates inappropriate,” Yan Rachinsky, the head of Memorial, said in an interview. “Naturally, we did not take notice of this advice.” Continue reading →

Occupy World Writes

The Movement Continues – Globally

Tag Archives: Memorial