Dr. Viviane Dittrich spoke at Tufts University Symposium ‘Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities’

 

On 10 October 2020, Dr. Viviane Dittrich participated in the 2020 EPIIC International Symposium ‘Preventing Genocide and Mass Atrocities’ organized by the Institute for Global Leadership of Tufts University. On the panel ‘After Genocide: Prosecution, Transitional Justice and Reconciliation’, Deputy Director Dr. Viviane Dittrich was joined by fellow panelists Dr. Tawanda Hondora, Adviser and Head of the Rule of Law Section in the Governance and Peace Directorate of The Commonwealth Secretariat in London, and Theary Seng, Founding President of CIVICUS: Center for Cambodian Civic Education. The panel discussion addressed, inter alia, the future of international law, the achievements and legacies of courts and tribunals, especially with a focus on the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia and its role in contemporary debates on memory in Cambodia today, the political challenges to criminal prosecutions, the role of geopolitics, individual responsibility and state responsibility, and the meaning of justice and legitimacy of international justice institutions. In her presentation at the outset of the panel, Dr. Viviane Dittrich highlighted the significance of the Nuremberg trials and the Nuremberg principles, the interplay of law and politics and the role of national prosecutions of international crimes today. The panel was moderated by Alex Smith.

The Symposium brought together practitioners and academics and addressed a rich spectrum of topics, including causes of genocide, prevention, prosecution and transitional justice, reconciliation, memory and survival. The keynote lecture of the Symposium was delivered by Ambassador David Scheffer, Clinical Professor Emeritus and Director Emeritus of the Center for International Human Rights at Northwestern University’s Pritzker School of Law and former US Ambassador at Large for War Crimes Issues.
The Symposium had originally been scheduled to take place at Tufts University on 26-28 March 2020. The conference had to be postponed due to COVID-19 and was now held as an online conference on 9-10 October.