Global vigil concludes 30 days of remembrance, education, and activism for Genocide Awareness Month
BOSTON, MA, USA – April 23, 2021 – On April 29th, Together We Remember will lead a 24-hour global vigil online to honor victims of and upstanders to identity-based violence throughout history. The vigil will unite survivors and advocates across borders and generations in an unprecedented effort to counter division, disinformation, and hate in schools, communities, and on social media.
“With hate on the rise and a global pandemic keeping us apart, it’s essential that we come together virtually across lines of difference,” says David Fox-Estrin, founder and CEO of Together We Remember and the grandson of four Holocaust survivors. “On April 29th, we intend to demonstrate the diversity and depth of work being done by incredible organizations around the world to make ‘never again’ a reality, once and for all.”
This program is the culminating event of the #TogetherWeRemember Coalition’s annual Genocide Awareness Month campaign - thirty days of remembrance, learning, and action to end identity-based violence, led by museums, schools, NGOs, and communities.
“During a year of escalating brutality, the TWR Coalition has equipped its members to speak and act with authority on timely matters, as parts of a global network devoted to turning memory into action,” says Lauren Bairnsfather, Executive Diretor of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh and Founding Co-chair of the coalition.
The vigil will feature over fifty genocide museums and human rights organizations and travel across twenty-seven countries and dozens of cities, from Hong Kong to Los Angeles. It will begin at 12:01AM ET on Thursday, April 29 and conclude at 11:59AM ET. All 24 hours will stream live on Together We Remember’s Facebook Page and YouTube Channel, where viewers can get involved in a global dialogue and take action to further truth, democracy, and human rights. People are encouraged to register in advance to receive a reminder email with the live stream links once the vigil begins.
Each hour of the vigil has been carefully curated by genocide education experts and human rights activists on the front lines, from Minneapolis to Myanmar, responding to ongoing atrocities across the world. Attendees will have the opportunity to experience inclusive name-readings, insightful speakers, and inspiring performances designed to turn collective memory into collective action.
Youth activist voices will feature prominently throughout the vigil in an effort to counter the perception that young people are unaware, uninformed, apathetic, and disengaged right now; the reality is quite the contrary.
“We believe in our power - not just as students of history, but also as shapers of history,” says Wandile Nzuza, Student Director of the TWR Youth Action Network. “With the help of Together We Remember and its global coalition of partners, we are realizing our potential as human rights advocates - sharpening our skills, growing our networks, and designing student-led projects that have local, national, and international impact, including this global vigil.”
To make this point abundantly clear, the opening and closing ceremonies of the vigil will be entirely youth-led, featuring TWR’s Youth Action Fellows in Rwanda, Zambia, South Africa, and the United States.
Recognition of April as Genocide Awareness Month is quickly gaining traction across the world, thanks in part to the advocacy of the Together We Remember Coalition, but the vigil organizers note that the broader issue of identity-based violence is the most effective way to frame the challenge of rising hate and ongoing atrocities.
According to Protection Approaches, a human rights organization based in the United Kingdom, “Identity-based violence is any act of violence motivated by the perpetrator's conceptualization of their victim's identity, for example their race, gender, sexuality, religion or political affiliation. It encompasses hate crime, violent extremism, and genocide and affects individuals as well as entire groups or communities all around the world.”
“As we face an unprecedented combination of threats - racism, xenophobia, antisemitism, toxic polarization, environmental destruction, authoritarianism, and the Covid-19 pandemic - the time is now for the history shapers among us to transform remembrance into action,” says Fox-Estrin. “This is our generational moment and we’re ready to rise to it.”
For more about the 24-hour Virtual Global Vigil please visit: www.TogetherWeRemember.org
About the #TogetherWeRemember Coalition: The #TogetherWeRemember Coalition is an international network of genocide museums and human rights organizations dedicated to collaborating like never before to end identity-based violence. Coalition Members work together to apply the lessons of the past to the present to counter division, disinformation, and hate in schools, communities, and on social media to bring the world closer to the promise of “never again” for all.
Participating Organizations: Aegis Trust ~ African Middle Eastern Leadership Project ~ Alliance for Peacebuilding ~ Anne Frank Center USA ~ Art Against Atrocities ~ Artolution ~ Auschwitz Institute ~ Beau Bassin Jewish Detainees Memorial and Information Centre ~ Campaign for Uyghurs ~ Cape Town Holocaust & Genocide Centre ~ Central American Collective ~ Dallas Holocaust & Human Rights Museum ~ DOCUMENTA: Center for Dealing with the Past ~ Documentation Center of Cambodia ~ Durban Holocaust & Genocide Centre ~ Facing History and Ourselves ~ Galicia Jewish Museum ~ Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes ~ Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia ~ Holocaust & Humanity Center ~ Holocaust Center for Humanity ~ Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh ~ Holocaust Commission at UJF-Tidewater ~ Holocaust Museum and Cohen Education Center ~ Holocaust Museum Houston ~ Holocaust Museum LA ~ Holocaust Resource Center of Kean University ~ Hong Kong Holocaust and Tolerance Centre ~ Indianapolis JCRC ~ Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Purdue Fort Wayne ~ Jewish.pl ~ Johannesburg Holocaust & Genocide Centre ~ Kigali Genocide Memorial ~ Liberation War Museum ~ LIGHT Education Initiative ~ Memorialize the Movement ~ Museo del Holocausto Guatemala ~ Parents Circle - Families Forum ~ Post-Conflict Research Center ~ Presidency University Kolkata History & Performing Arts Departments ~ Project Back to Life Iraq ~ Project Roma ~ Protection Approaches ~ Royal Ontario Museum ~ Srebrenica Memorial Center ~ Together We Remember ~ TWR Youth Action Network ~ UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect ~ Yahad-In Unum
Countries / Territories Represented:
Bangladesh ~ Belgium ~ Bosnia-Herzegovina ~ Brazil ~ Cambodia ~ Canada~ Croatia ~ France ~ Guatemala ~ Hong Kong ~ India ~ Iraq ~ Israel ~ Kosovo ~ Macau ~ Mauritius ~ Myanmar ~ Palestine ~ Rwanda ~ Serbia ~ South Africa ~ Sudan ~ Switzerland ~ Syria ~ United Kingdom ~ USA ~ Yemen ~ Zambia