The Raphael Lemkin Centenary Conference Wednesday, October 18, 2000 Georgian Board Room Imperial War Museum Lambeth Road London SE1 6HZ

Schedule Background Note Booking Form

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Schedule

09:00-10:00             Tour of the Holocaust Exhibition

Please note that although our tour lasts 60 minutes, visitors are spending an average of between one and a half and four hours in the Exhibition.

James Taylor of the Holocaust Exhibition staff will see conferees into the Exhibition and be present during coffee to informally answer any questions.

10:00-10:30             Coffee

10:30-11:00             RAPHAEL LEMKIN’S CONTRIBUTION
                                 TO THE ERADICATION OF GENOCIDE

Chair: Bernard F. Hamilton, President  Leo Kuper Foundation,

Jim Fussell, Director, Prevent Genocide International.
 

11:00-12:30             THE LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM RWANDA

Chair:  Oona King MP, Chair, All Party Parliamentary Group on Rwanda, the Great Lakes and the Prevention of Genocide,

Dr. Peter Hall, Chair, Physicians for Human Rights-UK,

Linda Melvern, Author, A People Betrayed: the Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide.

12:30-1:30              Lunch   (Kosher packed lunch provided)
 

1:30-2:30               THE UNITED KINGDOM’S RESPONSE THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE

Chair:   Bernard F. Hamilton, President,  Leo Kuper Foundation,

Samantha Purdy, Head of War Crimes Section, United Nations Dept., Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
 

2:30-4:00               DEVELOPMENTS IN THE JURISPRUDENCE 
                                 OF THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE

Chair:  Ben Whitaker, Former Rapporteur on Genocide, UN Commission on Human Rights,

Professor William Schabas, Director, Irish Centre for Human Rights, National University of Ireland,

Dr. Payam Akhavan Legal Officer, Prosecutor’s Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
 

4:00-4:30               Tea
 

4:30-5:45               THE PREVENTION OF GENOCIDE

Chair:   Gregory H. Stanton, Executive Director,  Genocide Watch,

Professor Kevin P. Clements, Secretary General, International Alert,

Stephen D. Smith, Executive Director, The Aegis Trust.

5:45-6:00               Closing Remarks.

A note on Professor Lemkin’s work in London
culminating in the Nuremberg Indictment of October 18, 1945

by Bernard F. Hamilton,  President,  The Leo Kuper Foundation
 

Professor Raphael Lemkin was born in Poland on June 24, 1900 and died in the United States of America on August 12, 1959. His short life was almost entirely devoted to outlawing the crime of genocide, which he originally referred to as the crime of barbarity during a League of Nations conference in 1933. In his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe, written before the death camps were known about, Lemkin analysed the laws of the Nazi Reich and demonstrated that they were designed to facilitate the destruction of peoples. Lemkin coined a word for the attempt to destroy a people -genocide. Following the creation of the United Nations, Lemkin  worked hard, and often single-handedly, to establish the 1946 Declaration and the 1948 Convention on Genocide and have them adopted by the General Assembly. This latter success is recorded on his gravestone.

Raphael Lemkin worked on the International Military Tribunal’s indictment of suspected Nazi criminals in London during the six weeks ending October 18, 1945. It was on that day that the word genocide first appeared in a public document. In count 3 of the indictment, dealing with War Crimes, it was alleged that the defendants "conducted deliberate and systematic genocide - namely, the extermination of racial and national groups…"

It is not known where Lemkin worked during his stay in London, as few detailed records on such matters have survived the passage of time. The British War Crimes investigation was carried out with the assistance of the Military Judge Advocate General. It is possible therefore that Lemkin worked in that office which was at 6, Spring Gardens, Cockspur Street, London SW1. As an American Government official, Lemkin might have stayed at one of the locations provided for the use of the USA. Justice Jackson and some of his team stayed at the Claridges Hotel in June 1945.

The official papers on the British War Crimes Investigative effort are now at the Public Record Office at Kew.

Booking Form:

To     The Leo Kuper Foundation
159 Cromwell Road
London SW5 0TQ

Tel:    44 (0) 20 73 73 73 32
Fax:    44 (0) 20 73 41 00 50
E-Mail:   LKF@west-end.demon.co.uk
 

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I apply to attend the Lemkin Centenary Conference and enclose a cheque made payable to "LKF" for forty-eight pounds sterling (£48.00).    [ ]
OR
I am a student and enclose a cheque for thirty pounds sterling
(£30.00).* [   ]
 
Signed:………………………………………………………………………..

Please note that the Georgian Board Room can only accommodate a limited number of people, and so early booking is advised.

* A limited number of student places are available on a first come first served basis.

There is no registration on site. Admission is by ticket only.