Building a worldwide-community of civil servants dedicated to Mass Atrocity Prevention

The Auschwitz Institute for Peace and Reconciliation (AIPR) is building a world that prevents  genocide and other mass atrocities. Through education, training and technical assistance, they support States  to develop or strengthen policies and practices for the prevention of genocide and other mass atrocities. They also encourage and support the cooperation of States through regional and international networks to advance prevention of genocide.

AIPR educates civil servants for mass atrocity prevention.  The organization  is focusing on trainings taking place at original sites  of atrocity, using the power  of place to mobilize  civil servants for a work dedicated to mass atrocity prevention, protection of vulnerable groups and defense of human rights.

The Global Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention is  one of the main pillars of AIPR’s work.  Through the seminar,  AIPR is creating a community of government officials who are educated in the latest genocide prevention policy strategies and who support each other in identifying best practices for dealing with the process  of genocide  and other  atrocity crimes and to promote human rights.

The location of the seminar at the former  Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland, allows participants to immerse themselves  both emotionally and  intellectually in the topic of genocide.

Following the seminar, alumni become member of the 2PREVENT community, AIPR’s growing  network  of more than 300 officials from more than 70 countries that have attended the seminar. Through continuous engagement with its alumni, AIPR  offers ongoing capacity building programs for their institutions towards atrocity prevention policy development at regional and national levels.

Approach	Holocaust as major framework to analyze human rights.
Target Audience	Authorities: – Ministry of Foreign Affairs -Ministry of Justice -Ministry of Defense -Ministry of Interior -Ministry of Education -National Human Rights Institutions
Outputs	Global Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide  Prevention 2PREVENT Network
Geographical scope	Global – UN Member States
Start of practice	2008
Country of origin	US, New York; Poland, Oswiecim; Argentina, Buenos Aires; Uganda, Kampala