Research Project: Ending Mass Atrocities: Echoes in Southern Cultures. Summary and Update. November 2009

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1 Research Project: Ending Mass Atrocities: Echoes in Southern Cultures Summary Update November 2009 Contributing Authors By September 2009, all contributing authors to the project final publication were identified commissioned to write their chapters. This followed an intensive period of research, communication with scholars around the world, interdisciplinary consultations in the four case study countries, to identify suitable authors from all parts of the world with the necessary qualifications motivation. A major aim of this project is to draw upon the wisdom knowledge of southern scholars whose work is often highly respected well known within their home countries or regions but is often not known or ignored in the literature in international relations politics, in policy circles around the United Nations. All the commissioned authors originate from countries that experienced violent conflict or mass atrocities, have first h experience in living through addressing these issues. Almost all of them have chosen to work in their countries of origin. The authors represent a wide geographic spread a mix of Anglophone, Francophone, Hispanophone Arabophone, they draw on a broad range of literary scholarly traditions. As with the editors, a solid gender balance also exists. The final list of contributing authors is as follows: Ending Mass Atrocities: Echoes in the South Chapter Authors Affiliation Country of Origin/Work PART ONE: 1.Religion Spiritual Traditions 2. Philosophy Ethics 3. Culture Customary Law 4.Aesthetics Artistic Expressions THEMES Prof Mutombo Nkulu- N sengha Prof Yola Angulo Parra Dr. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian Himmat Zu bi Prof Koulsy Lamko Dr. Rama Mani Professor of World Religion; State Univ of California, Northridge Professor of Philosophy, UNAM, Director-General, Centro de Estudios Genealógicos para la investigación de la cultura en México y América Latina, Criminologist, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem Centre for Gender Studies, HUJ Professor of Theatre, Mexico city,, author, playwright, musician Sr Research Associate, CIS Democratic Republic of Congo/USA Mexico Palestine/Israel Palestine/Israel Chad/Mexico

2 PART TWO: COUNTRY CASES 5. Kosovo Nita Luci Lecturer of Anthropology, University of Pristina, (completing Phd at U of Michigan) 6. Rwa Prof Paul Rutayisire Prof Jean-Marie Kayishema Professor of History Director, Centre for Conflict Management, National University of Rwa (NUR) Professor of Literature, Director of University Centre for Arts, NUR 7. Cambodia Prof. Ang Choulean Professor of Anthropology, Royal University of Phnom Penh 8. Nepal Dr. Arjun Karki President Rural Rehabilitation Network Editors Dr. Rama Mani (Introduction & Conclusion) Prof. Thomas G. Weiss Senior Research Associate, Centre for International Studies, University of Oxford Presidential Professor of Political Science, The CUNY Graduate Center Kosovo Rwa Cambodia Nepal India/France USA Regional Inter-Disciplinary Consultations In July August 2009, four inter-disciplinary consultations were held in the four case study countries, Rwa, Kosovo, Cambodia Nepal. The consultation was convened by the national university or a local research institute in each country, brought together a small group of scholars from different disciplines to discuss the project s themes from a countryspecific perspective. The four consultations held were: Rwa: consultation jointly convened by the Centre for Conflict Management of the National University of Rwa in Butare, the Rwa Governance Advisory Council, in Kigali, on 8 July. Kosovo: consultation convened by the Human Rights Centre at the Faculty of Law of the University of Pristina, in Pristina, on 17 July. Cambodia: consultation convened by the Vice Rector of the Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP) the Vice President of the Royal Academy of Cambodia at the RUPP in Phnom Penh, on 28 August. Nepal: consultation convened by the President of the Rural Rehabilitation Network with professors from the leading universities NGOs in Nepal, in Kathmu on 5 August.

3 Participants in Rwa consultation Outcome of the Consultations Each consultation led to deep fruitful discussion of the emerging norm of the responsibility to protect, drawing on the expertise of country scholars from the different disciplines of philosophy, theology, anthropology, history, psychology, law, sociology science, as well as a few NGOs in some cases. In each consultation two simultaneous strs could be detected in the initial discussions: on the one h, support for the norm in principle, on the other, hesitation about its application or potential misuse, based, often, on the historical experiences of the countries in question. In each country, the discussions led to the identification of a host of ancient still relevant cultural, philosophical, spiritual aesthetic traditions practices, historical precedents, where the principles practices of the responsibility to protect were implicitly or explicitly relevant. The deeper exploration of these identified factors through the work of this project may prove useful in subsequent debates about the evolution implementation of the concept of R2P in diverse contexts in the future. The consultations served a variety of essential purposes. They helped to identify the country author/s who will write the chapter for the project; they created a peer/reference group of scholars that the author/s could continue to draw on to elicit a diversity of disciplinary

4 perspectives while drafting the chapter; they provided a preliminary analysis of the subject identified core issues that might need deeper study in each case; they introduced to the scholarly community the concept evolution of R2P, hitherto little known or applied within the academic contexts in these four countries; they provided a stimulus for inter-disciplinary discussion in the four cases, which, it is hoped, will be sustained. Based on the success of the first round of consultations in the four countries, funding is being sought for a second round of consultations in These would allow the country authors to present their drafts preliminary recommendations to a wider group of in-country scholars graduate students for input prior to finalization, thus ensuring that a wider variety of views are reflected in each chapter. Art, Artists the Responsibility to Protect An additional purpose of the four country visits was to elaborate a secondary objective of this project, which is to examine the role of art artists within situations with mass atrocities. The Project Director met with several artists in each country to discuss the role that art aesthetic expressions artists themselves have played before, during after the mass atrocities, genocides or violent conflicts in their countries. In-depth, one-on-one interviews were held with a small number of select artists in each country across the different media of theatre, visual contemporary art, music, dance, according to what emerged in each case as the most significant forms of art or artists. A short extract of the longer interview with four selected artists in each country was then recorded on film, to capture the breadth, specificity main lessons of the artists in each country. It is hoped that a subsequent project might elaborate on deal more specifically with this dimension of the responsibility to protect.

5 Vann Nath, the Artist of S21, writing his message for the project. Vann Nath survived the infamous S21 torture camp due to his paintings of Pol Pot, has since painted innumerable scenes of the torture atrocities committed by the Khmer Rouge, so that people can learn from history never repeat it. Current Status of the Project By October 2009, the project has advanced rapidly since its initiation in early This is thanks to the supportive environment provided by the CIS the faculty, staff students at the University of Oxford on one h, on the other h the support input from the GCR2P secretariat in New York. The GCR2P Secretariat was particularly successful in clarifying the concept lobbying UN member states in advance of the UN General Assembly debate on R2P in late July Their analysis of the GA debate can be found at ( Upcoming Events Jan 2010 conference