Search

Begin New Search Topic Atrocity Prevention Author Kyra Fox

1. Using Targeted Sanctions to Help Prevent Mass Atrocities: Results from Interviews with Experienced Practitioners

Author:
Tallan Donine, Kyra Fox, Daniel Solomon, Alex Vandermaas-Peeler, and Lawerence Woocher
Publication Date:
01-2023
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:
The Simon-Skjodt Center’s “lessons learned” project aims to understand better how policy makers, across all levels of government, can take effective action to prevent mass atrocity crimes and protect civilian populations in situations where they face serious threats of group-targeted, systematic violence. We have sought to identify, distill, and organize insights on a range of policy tools—ranging from “naming and shaming” to sanctions to prosecutions—which are sometimes used to help prevent or respond to mass atrocities. To complement our review of the empirical research literature on the use of targeted sanctions, we conducted interviews with people who had substantial policy or operational experience working in the US government on targeted sanctions prior to 2021. The premise for the interviews is that experienced practitioners have important insights about when and how targeted sanctions can be most effective in helping prevent mass atrocities.3 While one can find many ideas about how to use targeted sanctions most effectively, none that we are aware of are: (1) focused specifically on the use of targeted sanctions for mass atrocity prevention and (2) based on the collective perspectives of a set of experienced practitioners. This report summarizes the results of the interviews with experienced targeted sanctions practitioners. Details on the methods employed and the interview respondents are presented in appendices.
Topic:
Foreign Policy, Economics, Sanctions, and Atrocity Prevention
Political Geography:
Global Focus

2. Risk of Mass Atrocities in Cameroon

Author:
Kyra Fox and Andrea Gittleman
Publication Date:
06-2020
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:
Cameroon currently ranks number nine of countries at risk of mass killing in the Simon-Skjodt Center’s Statistical Risk Assessment.1 The situation has deteriorated significantly since 2017, when Cameroon ranked 36th. After Anglophone civilians launched protests in late 2016 alleging marginalization by the Francophone-majority government, state security forces responded violently, allegedly arresting, beating, and shooting demonstrators.2 Clashes ensued, with security forces reportedly killing over 20 people in a 12-day period in largely peaceful protests in September and October 2017.3 Shortly after, Anglophone separatists began fighting for independence for the territory they referred to as Southern Cameroons or Ambazonia. The crisis emerged from the long-standing political grievances of the Anglophone community. Yet today, fighting between the two sides makes it difficult to discern motives. Security forces are reportedly targeting Anglophone civilians accused of supporting separatists. It is unclear to what extent security forces are also targeting the Anglophone linguistic and cultural identity. Meanwhile, armed separatists claiming to represent the Anglophone population are reportedly targeting civilians they perceive as supporting the government. This policy brief provides an overview of the risks of mass atrocities in Cameroon’s Anglophone regions and provides recommendations to the Cameroonian government, armed separatist groups, and international actors to prevent atrocities and protect civilians.
Topic:
Non State Actors, State Violence, Risk, Atrocities, and Atrocity Prevention
Political Geography:
Africa and Cameroon

3. [How] Do External Actors Support Civilian-Led Atrocity Prevention?

Author:
Riva Kantowitz and Kyra Fox
Publication Date:
07-2020
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:
This report presents external actors’ perspectives on how to most effectively support civilian-led atrocity prevention efforts. Recent studies suggest that civilians—working through civil society organizations, through less formal, local community mechanisms, or both—are not passive actors but, in fact, use a range of active strategies to prevent atrocities. External support can help or harm these efforts. We use case studies of three external actors—the US government, the Swiss government, and the former Nexus Fund—to understand how these external actors structure their processes to support civilian-led atrocity prevention efforts. These three actors share a stated commitment to help prevent mass atrocities, including through providing support to civil society. Their differences, including the size and scope of foreign assistance, the size of bureaucracies, the configuration of key staff roles, and the degree to which they single out atrocity prevention from other goals, allowed us to explore how these factors affected their support to civilian-led atrocity prevention. We put forward a framework, based on the conclusions from the research, to help external actors identify how to improve their support for civilian-led efforts in practice. The framework encourages external actors to engage with internal process questions such as, “How can we be more accountable to local communities?” and “What is our comparative advantage relative to other donors?” External actors should use this set of questions as a diagnostic tool to create holistic atrocity prevention strategies designed to support civilian-led atrocity prevention efforts. The report’s primary recommendation is that external actors commit their institutions to engaging thoughtfully with the different models and strategies presented, dedicating time and resources to studying their own systems and processes and thinking about how they may be re-imagined to support civilian-led work.
Topic:
Civil Society, Civilians, Atrocities, and Atrocity Prevention
Political Geography:
Switzerland and United States of America

4. The Role of Justice in Preventing Mass Atrocities: Evolving Debates and New Directions

Author:
Kyra Fox
Publication Date:
06-2019
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Abstract:
Scholars and practitioners agree past atrocities are a strong predictor of future atrocities within a country. 1 Given this, many argue that transitional justice--which aims to help societies deal effectively with past abuses--has an important role to play in atrocity prevention, especially in preventing the recurrence of mass atrocities. Practitioners and international justice lawyers often assume that effective transitional justice should facilitate atrocity prevention. The Preamble to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) articulates the Court’s determination to “put an end to impunity for the perpetrators of these crimes and thus to contribute to the prevention of such crimes.” A 2018 study by the UN Special Rapporteur on the 2 promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non-recurrence and the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide discusses the “contribution of transitional justice to the prevention of gross violations and abuses of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law, particularly to the prevention of genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity, and their recurrence.” 3 Among scholars, the preventive capacity of transitional justice is more contentious. Debates have largely centered on the ability of prosecutions to deter potential perpetrators, and a sharp cleavage has emerged between scholars who believe in the deterrent capacity of international criminal justice and those who doubt it. Meanwhile, there has been a relative neglect of (1) transitional justice tools other than 4 prosecutions, and (2) the ways in which transitional justice tools, including prosecutions, might contribute to prevention outside their (potential) deterrent effect. As a result, policymakers and practitioners have little clear guidance about how to maximize the preventive effects of transitional justice efforts. The 2019 Sudikoff Interdisciplinary Seminar on Genocide Prevention will bring together a diverse group of practitioners and scholars to discuss how transitional justice tools (broadly defined) can potentially help prevent mass atrocities. Through the framework of systemic, structural, and operational prevention, scholars and practitioners will examine the ability of transitional justice tools to address the root causes of conflict (structural prevention), influence the calculus of potential perpetrators (operational prevention), and influence global norms (systemic prevention). Ultimately, the seminar will aim to (1) identify directions for fruitful research on the topic of transitional justice tools and atrocity prevention, and (2) generate ideas for new resources to help practitioners maximize the preventive impact of transitional justice tools.
Topic:
Genocide, Transitional Justice, Justice, and Atrocity Prevention
Political Geography:
Global Focus