In Memory of Rafał Lemkin, on the 60. Anniversary of the Adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Warsaw, 18–19 September 2008
Belweder Palace, 56 Belwederska Street

18th September, Thursday

14.00               
The ceremony to unveil the commemorative plaque in the house where Rafał Lemkin lived and worked until September 1939, 6 Kredytowa Street, Warsaw

 

14.30–15.00 Registration

15.00              

Introduction:

• Dr. Sławomir Dębski (Director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs)
• Dr. Andrzej Kremer (Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland)

 

15.15-16.00     

Keynote Speech:

Prof. Adam Daniel Rotfeld (Former Foreign Minister of Poland)
The Lemkin Concept: an Old Crime and the New Definition

16.00-16.15 Coffee Break

 

16.15-17.45

Session 1: Rafał  Lemkin’s Life and Heritage

• Prof. Ryszard Szawłowski (Polish University Abroad)
  Raphael Lemkin's Life Journey. From Creative Legal Scholar and Well-to-do Lawyer Until 1939 to Pinnacle of International Achievements During the Forties in the States, Ending Penniless Crusader in New York in the Fifties
• Prof. Marek Kornat (Polish Academy of Sciences)
  Raphael Lemkin's Formative Years and the Beginnings of International Career, 1900-1939
• Dr. William Korey
  Lemkin’s Passion: Origin, Development and Impact
• Steven Leonard Jacobs (The University of Alabama)
  The Human, the Humane, and the Humanitarian: Their Implications and Consequences in Lemkin's Work on Genocide

Moderator: Prof. Adam Daniel Rotfeld (Former Foreign Minister of Poland)

Discussion

17.45-18.00 Coffee Break

 

18.00-19.15     

Session 2: Rafał Lemkin's Ideas of Humanization of International Relations

• Jean-Louis Panné (Editions Gallimard, Paris)
  Confrontation de deux approches du Génocide des juifs: Raul Hilberg et Rafael Lemkin
• Stéphane Courtois (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris)
  Le concept de Génocide de classe est-il Pertinent?
• Jim Fussell (Director of Prevent Genocide International)
  Raphael Lemkin's Evolution from Scholar to Activist

Moderator: Prof. Gunnar Heinsohn (Raphael–Lemkin–Institute for Comparative Genocide Research, Bremen)

Discussion

 

19th September, Friday

9.30- 11.15      

Session 1: Genocide in the Historical Perspective

• Prof. Claudia Kraft (University of Erfurt)
  Raphael Lemkin and the Debates about the Genocide Convention in Early Post-War Germany
• Dr. Anton Weiss-Wendt (The Center for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities)
  The Soviet Union and the Genocide Convention: An Exercise in Cold War Politics
• Dr. Samuel Totten (University of Arkansas)
  The United States' Recalcitrance to Ratifying the UNCG
• Prof. Roman Serbyn (Université du Québec à Montréal)
  Holodomor: the History and the Politics of the Ukrainian Genocide

Moderator: Dr. Sławomir Dębski (Director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs)

Discussion

11.15-11.30 Coffee Break

 

11.30-13.15     

Session 2: The Heritage of the Rafał Lemkin’s Concept of Genocide in the Contemporary Conflicts and International Criminal Courts’ Activity

• Prof. William A. Schabas (Director of the Irish Centre for Human Rights, former member of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission)
  Lemkin, Srebrenica and Darfur
• Nobuo Hayashi (Researcher, International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO)/Visiting Professor, International University of Japan)
  The 'G-word': The Politics of Stigma in International Criminal Justice
• Daphna Shraga (Principal Legal Officer, Office of the Legal Counsel, Office of Legal Affairs, UN)
  The Security Council and the Obligation 'to Prevent and Punish' Genocide

Moderator: Prof. Zdzisław Kędzia (Adam Mickiewicz University)

Discussion

13.15-14.15 Lunch

 

14.15-16.00     

Session 3: The Future of the „Responsibility to Protect” Concept

• Prof. Zdzisław Kędzia (Adam Mickiewicz University)
  The Responsibility to Protect: Political Strength vs. Legal Fragility
• Dr. Anastase Shyaka (Director of the Centre for Conflict Management, National University of Rwanda)
  The Responsibility to Protect – Experience from Rwanda
• Blaise Misztal (National Security Initiative)
  Protect, but From What?: On the (Im)Moral Theory of Genocide

Moderator: Prof. Roman Kuźniar (University of Warsaw)

Discussion

 

16.00-16.10     

Closing Remarks:
Dr. Sławomir Dębski (Director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs)

 

Photo gallery