The First Anti-Genocide Postcard Campaigner?

by Michelle

categories: Activism & Advocacy, The Holocaust

Published September 26, 2009 @ 07:12PM PT

Can activist postcard campaigns be effective? The tactic is often used by advocacy organizations, often mocked by critics, and often sidelined by skeptics as pointless.

Postcards certainly aren't a magic bullet -- nothing is -- but at least one example shows that they can have an impact. Simon Wiesenthal, a Holocaust survivor who turned Nazi hunting into a profession, used postcards in several successful campaigns:

To convince Germany to rescind its statute of limitations of the prosecution of Nazi war criminals, he used postcards featuring a well-known photograph of a Nazi SS officer torturing Jewish prisoners (shown below).

To convince Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet to extradite Nazi fugitive Walter Rauff, he used postcards depicting the gas vans -- mobile gas chambers responsible for the death of an estimated 100,000 people -- that Rauff pioneered.

Wiesenthal's tactics were not without criticism, but they were effective. (And, as far as I know, Wiesenthal might have been the first to use postcard campaigns in a genocide-related campaign.)

[Photo of Simon Wiesenthal holding photos of Walter Rauff and a gas van used during the Holocaust.]

Darfur Activists Target World Leaders at UNGA, G20

by Michelle

categories: Activism & Advocacy, Darfur & Sudan

Published September 24, 2009 @ 05:27PM PT

President Obama received applause from the UN General Assembly yesterday for his remark on the need to ensure lasting peace in Sudan. Though brief, the comment was delivered as part of speech that emphasized global responsibility for the challenges of our time, from climate change to crimes against humanity. "The magnitude of our challenges has yet to be met by the measure of our action," Obama said, as all too often grand-scale international blame games trump meaningful multilateral problem solving.

The spirit of "global solutions to global problems" is, indeed, at the heart of a veritable activist blitz targeting world leaders at the UNGA in New York City and the G20 summit now happening in Pittsburgh. As I write, STAND and Save Darfur activists are lining the streets around a G20 dinner, making their concerns visible to the delegates passing by. The message is simple: Sustainable peace in Sudan, along with justice for the victims and survivors of genocide in Darfur, is a matter of global importance.

On Tuesday night in NYC, The Darfur/Darfur photo exhibit was on display in Grace Plaza. The event, put on by Save Darfur, included remarks from US Special Envoy Scott Gration and Save Darfur President Jerry Fowler. Gration's presence was particularly welcome by the advocates -- those I spoke with were excited by his attendance and appreciative of his remarks. Given that Gration's began his assignment with a someone tense relationship with the advocacy movement, his participation in the event seems to indicate renewed cooperation.

For more information about Save Darfur's policy platform, see their memo on why G20 nations should not forgive Sudan's odious foreign debt, Jerry Fowler's recent piece on Obama and the UNGA in the Huffington Post, and the Blueprint for Peace policy paper prepared jointly with Enough and the Genocide Intervention Network. The keep up with the rest of the week's activities, Save Darfur staffers are Twittering away in Pittsburgh.

[Photo of the Darfur/Darfur event on Tuesday from Save Darfur's Flickr stream, used with written permission from the organization.]

A Conventional Approach

by Karl Horberg

categories: Peace & Justice, R2P & Genocide Prevention, The Holocaust, War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity

Published September 23, 2009 @ 04:26PM PT

On the eve of a new UN General Assembly it may be helpful to look back on the history of one of the body's most substantial contributions to international law.

The idea of an international treaty prohibiting genocide was first broached by Raphael Lemkin, the Polish lawyer who created the term "genocide." In a pamphlet published in 1946 Lemkin proposed that individuals who committed acts of genocide would be prosecuted by the country where the crime was committed. Additionally, he suggested that a special tribunal be set up to try any government or organization leaders who participated in genocide.

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Burn Your Bra

by Michelle

categories: Activism & Advocacy, War Crimes & Crimes Against Humanity

Published September 22, 2009 @ 05:46PM PT

Money speaks louder than morality. It's sad but true: International business interests rarely show concern over the connection between their activities and the abuse of civilians by their government -- unless consumer pressure makes them, that is.

Take Sri Lanka. The tiny island nation's 26 year civil war ended in May, but government abuse of ethnic Tamil civilians is gaining long overdue attention from the UN, foreign government, and human rights groups.

But despite the fact the over 250,000 displaced civilians continue to be forcibly detained in camps by the Sri Lankan government, which also continues to refuse all but the most limited humanitarian assistance to the camps, the war's official end precipitated an economic boost from renewed foreign investment. In particular, the country's garment industry is receiving increased orders from abroad, including from major American retailers like Gap and Victoria's Secret.

Victoria's Secret, in fact, remained largely undeterred by the conflict -- Sri Lanka's textile shops are among the popular lingerie chain's biggest suppliers. How do you feel wearing a bra that funds crimes against humanity?

According to the "No to Sri Lanka" campaign, which is organizing boycotts and a "Check the Label" movement, foreign investment accounts for the Sri Lankan government's primary source of revenue. And, don't ya' know it, the US is among Sri Lanka's top trading partners.

So take action: Join the boycott and let American retailers know that what they seem not to feel in their collective conscience they will feel in their pocket books -- it's the only thing that speaks to them, and it's an opportunity for you to have a tangible impact.

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Why I Did Not Fast Today

by Michelle

categories: Activism & Advocacy, Darfur & Sudan

Published September 21, 2009 @ 06:32PM PT

Over 450 people participated in the Darfur Fast for Life campaign today, but I did not join them myself. This is a difficult post to write, because I count many of those on the list as friends, and I have the utmost respect for them and the others. While I disagree with fasting as a tactic, I do not question the good intentions of those involved.

I am generally opposed to awareness-raising campaigns that involve victim identification or self-inflicted suffering, when the activists themselves are not members of the oppressed population. While the intent is to show solidarity with and draw attention to the victims and survivors of gross human rights violations, the actual effect is to divert attention away from the cause and turn it on to the activists instead. The sacrifice of the activist becomes the primary focus, rather than the cause at hand, and those whose suffering is not elective.

It worries me when I hear of young activists who see self-abductions and t-shirts decorated with AK-47s as the "next cool thing." Surely, human rights activism is in need of innovative new methods of grabbing attention in a world characterized by a notable "lack of give a damn," to borrow a phrase from Bread for the World President David Beckmann. But we have no shortage of creative minds in our ranks, and I believe that we can find a way to elevate our cause without resorting to gimmicks.

(Somewhat along these lines, victim "simulation" exercises have been discredited as methods of teaching the Holocaust.)

But the movement's critics, who've had a bloggers' field day with the fast campaign, are creating their own nits to pick, and at times seem more eager to grind their axes rather than make legitimate points. Oscar H. Blayton writes with indignant frustration over the lack of information on the Darfur Fast for Life website on "who is involved in this organization or how it is structured" -- it's a campaign, not an organization, which the website clearly states on its homepage was initiated by Mia Farrow and joined by a whole host of other individuals. His befuddlement over the absence of a place to make donations is almost nonsensical.

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A Few Good Extraditions

by Michelle

categories: Peace & Justice, Rwandan Genocide, The Holocaust

Published September 20, 2009 @ 05:56PM PT

A brief check-in on the slowly-but-surely turning wheels of post-genocide justice:

In another round of "well if you won't, we will," the world renowned, universal jurisdiction-lovin' Spanish judicial system indicted a Michigan resident on charges of accessory to genocide. Judge Ismael Moreno issued an arrest warrant for Johann Leprich, who is believed to have worked as a guard at the Nazi's Mauthausen concentration camp.

Leprich was stripped of his American citizenship in 1987 when his Nazi past was revealed, and he eluded arrest and deportation for another 16 years. Once caught, though, he was released back into the wilds of the Detroit suburbs (albeit, with an ankle bracelet) when no other country would take him, due to a US Supreme Court ruling placing a six month limit on detention for those awaiting deportation.

I can only hope that someone is working to close the legal loophole with an "except if you're an accused war criminal" clause -- but in the meantime, it looks like the Spaniards have our backs.

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Iranian Prez Denies Holocaust, World Acts Surprised

by Michelle

category: AntiSemitism & Holocaust Denial

Published September 19, 2009 @ 09:16AM PT

What's a sure-fire way for an attention-hungry despot to reclaim an errant international media spotlight? Denying the Holocaust, of course.

Iranian Dictator President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad resorted to his tried-and-true strategy yesterday with a speech to party loyalists, referring to the Holocaust as "a lie based on an unprovable and mythical claim," and launching into a rant about how Israel's days are numbered. Charming, for sure -- and the equivalent of saying to the world, "Don't forget about me! I'm still here and can cause all kinds of trouble for you!"

The remarks were countered with the usual round of international condemnation. Holocaust denial is, indeed, dangerous, especially when coming from the leader of a regime hostile to the state of Israel. But I also can't help but wonder if the global uproar isn't exactly what he wants -- if the renewed attention isn't just indulging the Napoleonic delusions of a short, angry little man. He says, "Jump," we ask, "How high?"

Serious negotiations are underway in the diplomatic backchannels, aimed at containing Iran's nuclear threat and its threat to Israel. On the public front, though, would such efforts be better served by taking Ahmadinejad's hysterical ranting a tad less seriously and letting it push him toward irrelevance?

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