In Development

The following workshops are currently under development:

The Beginning of Darfur’s Genocide: Sudan’s North-South Civil War

The North-South war in Sudan began in 1983, although it was largely a continuation of the first civil war in the country that took place from 1955 until 1972. This war took place almost exclusively in southern Sudan and is cited as one of the longest lasting and deadliest wars in recent history. Historians estimate that roughly 1.9 million civilians were killed during this war and more than 4 million were forced to abandon their homes at one time or another since the war began. While the conflict officially ended in January 2005 with the signing of the Navaisha Peace Accords in Kenya, the fighting still continues to the present day and hundreds of thousands of people remain internally displaced. While most of the discussion of contemporary Sudan focuses on Darfur, it is necessary to understand that the crisis brewing in Darfur is in many ways an offshoot of the North-South war. With a referendum coming up in 2011 that will determine whether or not the oil-rich South will separate from the rest of the country, it is likely that eliminating opposition in Southern Sudan will once again become a priority of the government in Khartoum. This workshop will explain the North-South war and how it relates to the current situation in Darfur. There will be close attention paid to the role of the government, the rebels and the international community in perpetuating this conflict.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Caroline Cormier.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo

After the overthrow of Mobutu in 1997, over the span of five years (1998 to 2003), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) faced the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II. In the post-war transition period, gender equality and women’s human rights has not been a priority. Violence against women and children is particularly concerning in Eastern Congo, with rape, abduction, execution, and sexual slavery running rampant. These atrocities are committed by non-state armed groups, the Armed Forces of the DRC, the National Congolese Police and increasingly also by civilians; the situation is therefore of great urgency. This workshop will focus on the difficulty of post-conflict reconstruction, with a focus on gender-based violence, its causes and consequences.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Sara Hylton.

From Thought to Action: How to Build Successful Awareness and Fundraising Programs

This workshop will be offered to high school student leaders and will focus on helping them create successful awareness and fundraising programmes with the resources they currently possess. With the right planning, these campaigns can be highly successful and their message can be far-reaching. Students will have the opportunity to discuss with experienced student leaders their campaign ideas and formulate them into a strategic plan of action. Whether your team of students is starting from scratch or with a vague idea, this programme will give students the knowledge and skills to put their ideas into action and become effective advocates for change.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Caroline Cormier or Nicole Longpré.

The Fundamentals of Advocacy: Creating Change

How do you effectively advocate? What are some tactics that are involved? How do you mobilize groups of people to support a cause? Activism has become a phenomenon in recent decades as people have become aware of their own individual and collective rights. Fundamentally, advocacy is a means for individuals to become engaged in local issues in a meaningful, effective manner. This workshop will explore advocacy by utilizing case studies run by activists across the globe such as the Lesbian Avengers and T.A.C. (Treatment Access Campaign) as well as field work with War Child Canada. This workshop will also address differences between youth and adult advocacy and how students can build their own capacity to engage in effective advocacy.

For more information on this workshop, please contact info@educationforchange.ca.

Justice and the International Community

Since the end of the Second World War the field of international law has expanded substantially; however, the world still struggles to develop adequate institutions to deal with massive human rights violations, not least because of problems in the areas of enforcement and jurisdiction. This workshop will introduce students to the various types of institutions that have been developed in the postwar era in response to major atrocities, including military tribunals and permanent international institutions like the International Criminal Court (ICC).

For more information on this workshop, please contact Nicole Longpré.

Never Forget? Memorializing Mass Atrocity

“To live through a catastrophe is bad; to forget it is worse” Elie Wiesel.
How we remember the past inevitably shapes our perception of the present and our hopes for the future. The creation of official and unofficial memorials to past events serves as a communal act of remembering, defining how a community perceives itself and how it relates to other groups. In this workshop students will be introduced to basic concepts in the history of memory while examining major memorials to mass atrocities such as museums and monuments, as well as identifying outlets for memorialization projects of their own.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Nicole Longpré.

The Responsibility to Protect Darfur and Balancing State Interests

In recent years, the concept of humanitarian intervention has become the subject of a renewed debate and discussion within the field of International Relations. While most political leaders recognize that conflicts are tremendously dangerous in terms of local, national, and international security, there is still considerable apprehension when it comes to initiating large-scale action. In this course, students will learn about the Canadian-made Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine and its effectiveness in shifting from an emphasis on state security to focusing on human security on a global scale. To move the R2P doctrine from principle to practice, this course will explore the need to reconfigure both the political and economic interests of both individual states and the members of the United Nations Security Council. Students will learn the structure of the United Nations and the intricacies of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine in order to understand why its implementation in Darfur has not been successful. Students will be encouraged to examine Canada’s role within this project and actively discuss ways to improve the current system.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Caroline Cormier.

Understanding the Genocide in Darfur, Sudan

This workshop will focus on educating students about the conflict that has emerged in Sudan’s western province of Darfur since 2003. Since then, the genocide in Darfur has resulted in the death of over 400,000 and the displacement of over 2.5 million people from the region. This workshop will explain the intricacies of the conflict on the ground through sharing the stories of real individuals about their daily lives in IDP camps and examining the role of the government, the rebels and the international community in perpetuating genocide.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Caroline Cormier.

While the World Watched: The Failure of the International Community in Rwanda

Over the course of one hundred days in 1994, over 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were murdered, a rate of killing that surpassed the Holocaust at its peak. In the face of this, the response of the international community was inaction at best and active interference at worst. Why? This workshop will give an overview of the genocide before focusing on the reasons for the international community’s reluctance to intervene. Particular attention will be given to France’s support for Habyarimana and the effect of Somalia on US foreign policy.

For more information on this workshop, please contact Aidan Findlater.