Mark Hanis, left, founder and executive director of the Genocide Intervention Network, was keynote speaker at the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Center at Brookdale Community College on May 3. With Hanis is Dr. Paul Winkler, executive director of the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education.
Photos by Jill Huber
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May 12, 2009
More than 14 million lives have been lost to genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries, and despite the international community’s pledge to “never again” allow such brutality, the crises of death and displacement continue, said Mark Hanis, founder and executive director of the Genocide Intervention Network.
When he created the network in 2004 while a student at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania, his aim was to raise awareness of the genocide in Darfur. The network’s focus now encompasses genocide victims in Burma, Congo, and Sri Lanka.
“GI-Net’s goal is to change the way the U.S. and the world community respond to the world’s worst crimes,” Hanis told NJ Jewish News. “Our members envision a world in which the global community is ready, willing, and able to protect civilians.” He spoke to NJJN before his address at the 30th anniversary commemoration of the Holocaust, Genocide, and Human Rights Education Center at Brookdale Community College in Lincroft on May 3.
Hanis, the grandchild of four Holocaust survivors, was the keynote speaker at the event, which drew an audience of 200.
GI-Net members educate communities, lobby government officials, and raise funds that are directly used for civilian protection and security. A toll-free hotline (1-800-GENOCIDE) provides talking points and ways to contact elected officials, Hanis said.
The organization, based in Washington, DC, where Hanis lives, issues scorecards that grade officials on their efforts to end genocide and provides on-line newsletters and action alerts. It also consults with experts on ongoing genocide and others with experience in policy, media, grassroots organization, and education, Hanis said.
Education is one of the key ways to prevent genocide, he said, adding that GI-Net members speak to civic organizations, community groups, synagogues, and anywhere else people convene to learn about the issue.
“We have a responsibility to protect civilians victimized by countries unwilling or unable to stop the atrocities,” Hanis told NJJN. “Education must touch on the scope and implications of genocide. It’s not enough to learn that six million died in the Holocaust; to understand this, people must know specific minority groups were intentionally targeted for destruction because of ethnic hatred.”
‘Commitment to keep’
The network focuses on a “3P” formula to prevent and stop genocide, Hanis told the audience.
“First is ‘protection,’” he said. “We are providing an avenue for people to directly support the greatest need in genocide: civilian protection. Never before have ordinary citizens supported a peacekeeping mission. Then there is ‘political will,’ which GI-Net uses to translate concern into political action. We have to pressure our government to live up to its responsibility to protect.”
The Monmouth Conservatory of Music Children’s Choir, directed by Marissa Rosen, performed songs of hope at the May 3 event.
The third “P” stands for the concept of “permanence,” which recognizes that the brutality in Darfur, Congo, Sri Lanka, and Burma are not the first or last acts of genocide, said Hanis.
“GI-Net has created the first permanent anti-genocide constituency,” he said. “That way, we can eventually shift from a culture of reaction to one of prevention.”
The organization also has created STAND, a student anti-genocide coalition that mobilizes high school and college students through almost 1,000 chapters.
“Students must get political,” said Hanis. “Major change will happen only if you seriously engage with the government. It’s the only way to make ‘never again’ mean something.”
GI-Net also urges economic divestment of investments from countries engaged in genocidal practices, and a divestment screening tool is available on the network’s website. Sixty-one colleges and universities have begun divestment procedures and 29 states have passed target divestment legislation, Hanis said.
In addition, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, has created a genocide prevention task force that has produced 36 recommendations advising the U.S. government of ways to prevent genocide, he said.
“These actions, such as creating rapid-response funding that can be deployed for the purchase of immediate resources, can be realized into policy,” Hanis said. “The momentum to stop genocide has already begun, and it will make ‘never again’ more than an empty promise. It can be an actual commitment that we can keep.”
Additional information about GI-Net is available at www.genocideintervention.net.
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