Obama administration responds to call to action from Concordia researchers

September 13th, 2010

September 21, 2010 marks the one year anniversary of the release of a landmark document produced by researchers at Concordia University. Mobilizing The Will to Intervene (W2I) offers governments practical steps to prevent future genocides and mass atrocities. Produced by researchers with the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS) based at Concordia, the document was presented to the governments of Canada and The United States of America. It has already yielded concrete results.

Under President Barack Obama's leadership, the US Government has enacted two of the policies called for in the document:

  • The White House named human rights lawyer David Pressman to the newly-created position of National Security Council Director for War Crimes and Atrocities
  • The President's National Security Advisor, James L. Jones has created an Interagency Policy Committee on Preventing Mass Atrocities to coordinate policy proactively across the executive branch
Response has also been positive in Canada from officials working on all three political levels; federal, provincial and municipal. Earlier this year, a "civic dialogue" was held in Vancouver to debate the proposals and recommendations put forward in Mobilizing the Will to Intervene.

You are invited to attend the next civic dialogue

Wednesday, September 15, 2010 - 3pm

Concordia University - J.W. McConnell Library Building

1400 de Maisonneuve W. - Room # LB 1014

The director of MIGS, history professor Dr. Frank Chalk, and W2I's lead researcher, Kyle Matthews, continue their travels across North America and to other countries looking to act on the policy recommendations outlined in W2I. Chalk meets with officials in Uganda later this week while Matthews will travel to South Africa in October to present the W2I project to government officials, academics and directors of think tanks with the aim of actively setting up a framework for action using the document as a key reference.

More information:
To read a summary of the recommendations in W2I click here migs.concordia.ca/W2I/the_report.htm

Provided by Concordia University