International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime

Today, we marked the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime with a Parliamentary session focused on ‘Wounds Beyond War: Sexual and/or Reproductive Violence as Means of Genocide.’

We heard from:

Alisa Kovalenko – a Ukrainian documentary filmmaker and former soldier in the Ukrainian Voluntary Army. Her films have focused on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, both during the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. She is also a survivor of CRSV in Ukraine. 

Rahima Mahmut – an Uyghur singer, human rights activist, translator and interpreter, spearheading the campaign in the UK to end the ongoing Uyghur genocide.

Ambassador Melanne Verveer – the Executive Director of the Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security. Amb. Verveer previously served as the first US Ambassador for Global Women’s Issues, a position to which she was nominated by President Obama in 2009.

Christina Lamb OBE – a British journalist and author. She is the chief foreign correspondent of The Sunday Times and has won several major awards. 

We also heard from Baroness Kennedy of the Shaws LT KC, Brendan O’Hara MP, and Lord Alton of Liverpool.

Several follow-ups, including on justice and accountability for international crimes. More information will follow.

The session was organised in collaboration with the International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute and British Group Inter-Parliamentary Union.