In 2015, the House of Commons designated April as Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation, and Prevention Month and committed to “[honouring] the memory of the victims of genocide and reflect on the root causes of these tragedies, so that they never happen again.”
In the wake of the Holocaust, on December 9, 1948, the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Its coming into being took immense moral and political will, collaboration and hope in the possibility that the mass atrocities, loss and suffering the world had witnessed, could be prevented.
The conditions that allowed despotic authoritarian rulers to enact violence on their own citizens had to be prevented.
So leaders worked with civil society groups to begin the slow, unglamorous work of bolstering government accountability, introducing checks and balances to power (such as a robust and independent media, civil society groups and judiciary); growing the conditions and institutions that could enable stability, social-economic cooperation and peace; introducing new rights regimes and educating citizens for civic action, pluralism and peace.
Assessing Progress and Risk Factors
Using tools such the Democracy Matrix and USHMM's key risk factors and warning signs of genocide we need to continually assess and address the risks of current and future violence:
- What changes should we note in government power and accountability, the equitable application of the law, or quality of media?
- What institutions and civil society groups foster greater stability and how can we leverage or support such work?
- What ideologies and discriminatory or acts of targeted violence must be addressed?
Educating a Citizenry that Can Stand Up to Hate
At Facing History and Ourselves, the questions above and the mindsets, skills, knowledge and practices they suggest for citizens guide our work. Young people should experience equitable classroom spaces where they can share diverse and differing ideas, actively listen, and be accountable for their words. We envision classrooms where young people can broaden their universe of responsibility and practice ethical consideration.
We publish resources to help educators bring histories into classrooms that foster greater historical understanding for the fragility of civil rights and democracies, and spark engagement in response to prejudice, discrimination and hatred.
1. Creating a Reflective, Courageous Classroom Community
For almost 50 years, Facing History and Ourselves has championed the foundational work of contracting for reflective classrooms. For many classrooms, setting norms for respect can feel familiar and routine. And yet, the need for psychological safety, humanizing dialogue, and social connection continue to be urgent concerns. This process- How can we re-examine what it looks like to foster learning environments where there are clear expectations and measures of accountability that guarantee confidentiality and support psychological safety for individuals - but do not compromise on rigour for ideas?
- What might contracting sound like if it was focused on making space for a range of ways of being, a diversity of emotions and personal narratives - so that students can make deep and personal connections to stories of joy, trauma, grief and triumph - and everything in between?
- What shifts can we make to our practice to prioritize community building, and create opportunities for students' identity affirmation and learning that open up students' capacities to learn about identities that are not our own?
2. Reflect on the Value and Necessity of Diversity
Invite students to reflect on the scholars' quotes below, using a Notable Quotable or Big Paper strategy and invite students to reflect on their personal connections
- Canadian Anthropologist Wade Davis writes, “Every culture has a unique answer to a fundamental question: what does it mean to be human and alive? And when the people of the world answer that question they do so in those 7,000 different voices of humanity. And those voices and those answers collectively become our human repertoire for dealing with the challenges we’ll confront in the coming centuries.”
- Anishinaabe Constitutional Law scholar Aaron Mills recounts in Nokomis and the Law in the Gift: Living Treaty Each Day: "As individuals, none of us have all the gifts necessary for the good life, minobimaadiziwin; each of us depends on the gifts of others...you have to be yourself... and understand that you're connected to, and thus always in relationship with everybody..."
For Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term Genocide, the crime of genocide was a crime against humanity - the loss of a culture, ways of thinking, singing, moving and being - were acts of vandalism against humankind.
3. Teaching About Genocide
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This explainer helps students understand the meaning, gravity, and history of the concept and crime of genocide. students will be able to use it with care and be prepared to evaluate other people’s use of this important term.
Read the Supplemental Report to the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls to understand how historical context and precedent shaped our contemporary understanding of genocide, and to understand how colonial genocide has created vulnerability for Indigenous women, girls and two spirit.
Learn from Dr. Karine Duhamel, lead author of the MMIWG Report, in this webinar on the gendered nature of colonization and genocide in Canada
- Learn to recognize the the meaning and stages genocide
In this blog post, we explore Gregory Stanton's 10 stages of Genocide and provide examples of each stage from the Holocaust to help young people understand the steps that can lead to genocide. By identifying early stages and preconditions to genocide, and combatting these aspects within our society, we seek to prevent the later stages that increase risks of genocidal violence.
Explore why legal scholar Raphael Lemkin created the term Genocide and worked tirelessly to ensure its adoption in international law.
3. Explore Testimony and Examine a Case Study of Genocide
HolocaustThe five lessons in this unit give students an overview of the history of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust and provide a window into the choices individuals, groups, and nations made that contributed to genocide.
Use this 23-lesson unit to lead middle or high school students through a study of the Holocaust that asks what this history can teach us about the power and impact of choices.
- Teaching with Testimony
Engage students in personal accounts from survivors with this collection of video testimony, survivor profiles, and a lesson plan.
The Armenian Genocide
- This resource examines the choices that individuals, groups, and nations made before, during, and after the Armenian Genocide.
Canada's Residential School System
- This resource examines the forced removal of children from communities in Canada's residential school system. For teaching ideas, search our blog for lesson ideas, recorded survivor testimony and ways to remember those who survived and those who did not come home
The Holodomor
- Ontario educator, Michael Anthony shares the resources he uses to teach about the Holodomor in a genocide and human rights course.
Many additional resources can be found on Facing History and Ourselves' website for teaching about other instances of genocide in history.
4. Take Time to take Students Safely Out
Facing History and Ourselves' learning journey, or our approach to teaching histories of mass violence does not end on the day truce or defeat was declared. For those learning about these difficult histories, it is important to take the time to explore Memory, Legacy, Judgement and Choosing to Participate. The questions and processes raised by these steps enable us to connect the events of the past to the steps we can take to acknowledge, to heal and to work toward prevention.
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Journalist and advisor Samantha Power talks about a policy toolbox that societies need in order to create positive changes. Let’s ask students in class: What are our tools in our toolbox for social change?
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See how students across Ontario created meaningful responses to memoir and survivor testimony through art.
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Learn from Lorrie Gallant, a writer, illustrator, storyteller, visual artist, educator, Expressive Arts Practitioner, born and raised on Six Nations of the Grand River Territory Ontario, who shares an impactful, reciprocal and meaningful postcard activity that honours survivors.
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See how this Toronto classroom honoured and remembered Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls and Two-Spirited People on October 4th.
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How do we remember and honour the past? This lesson plan on memorials engages students in the processes of both responding to and creating memorials.
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Yom Hashoa, Holocaust Rememberance Day, also falls in April this year. Use this classroom activity to help students think critically about memory, legacy, family and how we can respond to the call to never forget.
