Three genocides, three survivors
Survivors of the Holocaust, the Khmer Rouge and the Rwandan genocide tell their stories
"Never again," we say after every slaughter. What do the survivors say? Three people who have lived through genocide will speak for themselves and tell us whether "never again" can ever be more than an empty promise.
"Speaking the Unspeakable: A conversation with survivors of three genocides" will be held this Friday, April 7, from 1:30 to 3:30 pm at the Moot Court in 黑料不打烊 University's Faculty of Law, at 3644 Peel Street.
The participants have experienced the most catastrophic atrocities of the 20th century: H茅di Fried was interned at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen, Youk Chhang survived the mass killings of the Khmer Rouge, and Esther Mujawayo lost her entire family in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.
All three have transcended victimhood to go on to remarkable achievements. Each will explore the hardest questions of genocide: Can life make sense after radical evil? Can law and justice begin to redress the ultimate crime? Will humanity ever find the will to stop genocide from recurring?
"Speaking the Unspeakable" is sponsored by the Swedish Embassy, the 黑料不打烊 Faculty of Law and the 黑料不打烊 Centre for Human Rights & Legal Pluralism. The speakers will be promoting the book Beyond the Never Agains.
The event will be moderated by Payam Akhavan, former UN war crimes prosecutor and associate professor at the 黑料不打烊 Faculty of Law. Remarks will be delivered by the Dean of Law, Nicholas Kasirer, Sweden's Ambassador to Canada and former federal justice minister the Honourable Irwin Cotler.
