75th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide | CONFERENCE - Instytut Pileckiego

To mark the 75th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, we would like to extend an invitation to a conference

“The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: Still Needed and Useful?”

11 December 2023, 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.
DeBeKa Gallery (11 Krakowskie Przedmieście Street)

Link for registration to attend in person:
https://docs.google.com/.../1Ing0H7zD5_hfMo-44CoaN3F.../edit
Link for registration to stream the event online:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CYNdKqpxRI2rEhWOg9pOuA

9 December marks the 75th anniversary of adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.

The first attempts at defining the crime of genocide were made by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term “genocide” in his 1944 book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. His efforts led to the adoption in 1946 of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 96 concerning the crime of genocide, and then to the drafting of the convention that was eventually adopted in 1948. The aim of our conference in Warsaw is not only to remember the Polish contribution to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, but also to discuss the document’s significance in the context of both the contemporary examples of possible genocide in Ukraine and the proceedings before the International Court of Justice that is currently examining cases concerning alleged genocide
(Ukraine v. Russia, The Gambia v. Myanmar) in which Poland is also engaged as an intervening state.

Conference Schedule

11:00 – 11:10 a.m.: Magdalena Gawin (Director of the Pilecki Institute)

11:10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. Panel I: Polish origins of the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide

Chair: Mateusz Werner (Pilecki Institute)

Panelists:

● Piotr Madajczyk (Polish Academy of Sciences): Raphael Lemkin – Father of the 1948 Genocide Convention
● Karolina Wierczyńska (Polish Academy of Sciences): The 1948 Genocide Convention– was it truly Lemkin’s?
● Patrycja Grzebyk (University of Warsaw): Contribution of the Polish Delegation to the 1948 Genocide Convention

12:30 – 12:50 p.m. Coffee break

12:50 – 14:40 p.m. Panel II: Genocide in Ukraine

Chair: Karolina Wierczyńska

Panelists
● Tomasz Lachowski (University of Łódź): From Holodomor to contemporary genocide against Ukrainians
● Kateryna Busol (National University of Kyiv – Mohyla Academy): Direct and public incitement to genocide in Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine
● Andriy Kosylo (University of Warsaw): The genocidal intent of Russia’s actions against Ukraine
● Olga Kotsiuruba (OPORA): Russia’s genocidal acts in Ukraine
● Iuliia Miziukina (Lemkin Center): Collecting wartime testimonies on the example of the activities of the Lemkin Center

14:40 – 16:00 p.m. Panel III: Genocide before the International Court of Justice: Ukraine v. Russia proceedings

Chair: Patrycja Grzebyk

Panelists:
● Anton Korynevych (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine): Ukraine v. Russia: nature of the case
● Łukasz Kułaga (Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw; Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs): The significance of interventions in Ukraine v. Russia case