Washington DC: Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development: Preventing mass atrocities through Development Policies: A roundtable on Economic, Social and Legal aspects

An event co-organized by the Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation, the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development and the Budapest Centre
within the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development

April 18, 2013 11:00 am – 12:30 pm
World Bank Headquarters | Washington DC
Room MC C1 – 110

Overview
This session – at the IMF-WB Civil Society Forum – seeks to facilitate a dialogue on what a mass atrocity prevention lens for development policy might look like. The panel will draw upon the expertise of development agencies in the Global South and Global North and the discussion will be supported by the experience of the Auschwitz Institute’s longstanding governmental partners, complemented by private attorneys familiar with major development projects in the public and private sectors.

Moderator
James Waller, Academic Programs Coordinator, Auschwitz Institute for Peace & Reconciliation

Speakers
Enzo Maria Le Fevre Cervini, Director for Research and Cooperation, Budapest Centre for the International Prevention of Genocide & Mass Atrocities

Dr. Juan Mendez, Professor of Law, American University and UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman and Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Troy Alexander, Project Finance Partner, White & Case, LLP

Emilio Viano, Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development

Background:
Mass atrocities and genocide present an ongoing threat to global development, prosperity, and stability. The movement to end mass atrocities is a nascent one that arose from the outrage after the Holocaust and the conflicts in Bosnia, Rwanda and Sudan.
This movement encourages governments to mobilize to protect vulnerable populations, and to find ways to interrupt the processes that can lead to genocide or mass atrocities. Recent advancements in genocide prevention policy provide a climate for concerted action amongst international, regional, and national institutions, including development institutions.

Development processes address the structural causes of mass atrocities, including poverty and exclusion, but prevention goes beyond enforcement of non-discrimination laws. The question we hope to answer is how development programs may further contribute to the prevention of genocide and mass atrocities.

This session seeks to facilitate a dialogue on what a genocide prevention “lens” for development policy might look like when implemented in societies at risk of mass atrocity, especially in post-conflict and fragile states. The discussion will be supported by the experience of the Auschwitz Institute’s governmental and civil society partners, complemented by private attorneys familiar with development projects in the public and private sectors.

This event is organized within the Global Forum on Law, Justice and Development which is a permanent knowledge forum that seeks to connect experts and stakeholders from around the world and to provide a mechanism for continual and efficient knowledge exchange and for the cogeneration of innovative legal solutions to development challenges based on efficiency, equity and justice.

To know more about the event: http://globalforumljd.org/events/2013/041813_atrocity.htm