Announcements and Recent Analysis

As South Sudan Votes, Violence Troubles Border Region

With great euphoria at this long-awaited moment, South Sudanese began voting on Sunday in a referendum on independence from the North. Over the next week, more than three million people are expected to go to the polls, and, so far, voting in the South has been peaceful and smooth. One man cycled for two days to cast his vote in Rumbek, the capital of Lakes state, where herders sometimes move long distances with their animals. “Some of those traveling from the cattle camps had arranged for relatives to look after their cattle before rushing back and swapping so that others could travel to vote,” reports the BBC.  

Museum Issues Press Release on South Sudan Referendum

On January 5th, the Museum issued a press release urging leaders in Sudan's North and South to call for calm in advance of South Sudan's referendum.  

Can Obama keep Sudan from exploding after its referendum?

In The Washington Post, Mike Abramowitz, Director of the Museum's genocide prevention program, writes about international efforts to prevent violence in Sudan around the January 9th referendum -- and our ability to respond if those efforts fail. The Washington Post also profiles a video by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lucian Perkins, who recently traveled to South Sudan with Abramowitz on a Museum-sponsored bearing witness trip.  

A Bipartisan Resolution for Genocide Prevention

On December 22, 2010, the U.S. Senate unanimously passed S.Con.Res.71, a non-binding resolution that recognizes genocide prevention as a national security interest of the United States and urges the President and senior government leaders to rededicate efforts to “anticipate, prevent, and mitigate acts of genocide and other mass atrocities.” With a coalition of over a half-dozen organizations, the anti-genocide community worked actively to support the resolution’s passage.  

State Department Review Names Prevention of Genocide a Priority

Judge Buergenthal on the Challenges of International Justice

On the eve of the anniversary of the genocide convention, the Museum hosted a discussion with Judge Thomas Buergenthal, a Holocaust survivor who has devoted his life to finding justice and protecting human rights for people throughout the world. A pioneer of international law, Judge Buergenthal served for the last decade as the American judge for the International Court of Justice (ICJ), the principle judicial organ of the United Nations.  

Museum Joins with Ben Affleck to Raise Awareness about the Congo

In an event last night co-hosted by the Museum, Ben Affleck and Senator John Kerry came together with a panel of experts to speak about policy options for resolving the conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Founder of the Eastern Congo Initiative, a U.S. based advocacy and grant-making group, Ben Affleck spoke about the need to unite peacemaking efforts in eastern Congo and to do so now, before Congolese elections in 2011 raise additional new challenges.  

U.S. and French Holocaust Museums Convene Genocide Prevention Symposium

“We know the unthinkable is thinkable. What do we do with that knowledge?” Sara Bloomfield, director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, asked an audience of human rights experts, conflict prevention specialists, and senior diplomats representing more than 20 governments. The group gathered in Paris on Monday to discuss how members of the international community could work together to prevent genocide and mass atrocities.  

“If there is war, I will be used to it.”

In an op-ed in the Boston Globe, Mike Abramowitz, Director of the Museum's genocide prevention program, and Andrew Natsios, former U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan, discuss the definitive moment ahead for southern Sudan, as the region prepares to vote in a referendum on independence, and the hopeful possibility that peace is within reach. Abramowitz and Natsios traveled to southern Sudan on a Museum-sponsored bearing witness trip. To learn more about their observations and experiences, read the trip report or view photographs.

Stories from South Sudan: A Film Excerpt

From November 8 to 10, 2010, the Holocaust Museum will project building-size images of life in South Sudan onto the Museum's exterior walls on 15th Street. Taken by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Lucian Perkins on a recent Museum-sponsored trip, these images bear witness to the risks ahead for the Sudanese, as the South prepares to vote in a referendum on independence in January 2011.