Genocide: Learning the Lessons

Picture: Grave Embrace by Robert McNeil

Our team

A team of genocide scholars, museum curators and media experts we are passionate about collecting, preserving and sharing artefacts, artwork and information about genocide. We believe in peacebuilding and community cohesion in the present through learning from the past. The Genocide Education Network is a member of the Association of Independent Museums.

Kim Sadique

Director of GEN

Kim is a curator and educator driven to empower individuals to build stronger communities. She has over 20 years experience in higher education delivering sessions on hate crime and genocide. She is a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and Chair of the Academic Advisory Board for Remembering Srebrenica UK

Melisa Mujkanović

Deputy Director of GEN

Melisa Mujkanovic is a lecturer and genocide educator. Her passion for education, justice and empowerment stem from her own experiences as a child genocide survivor. Melisa has 14 years teaching experience and is on the East Midlands Regional Board for Remembering Srebrenica. She is a member of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention.

Dr Anastasiya Pshenychnykh

Ukraine Consultant

Academic Visitor in Communication and Media at Loughborough University. Anastasiya’s interests are memory and media studies, memory conflicts and social media. Current work focuses on Russian-Ukrainian memory wars, online and on-site memory activism in the context of the armed conflict.

John Coster

Conflict Memory Media Consultant

John Coster is an independent journalist working at the intersection of documentary media and solutions journalism. John maintains networks and links with independent journalists and documentary makers around the world via his Parallel Lives programme. He has a particular interest in media within the context of conflict, post conflict rehabilitation, and fragile states via his Conflict Memory and Education programme.

Hasan Hasanović

Oral History Consultant

Hasan is a genocide survivor. He is the Head of Oral History at Srebrenica Memorial Centre and an Honorary Senior Research Fellow at De Montfort University. He is the author of two books: Hasanovic, H. (2016) Surviving Srebrenica and Petrila, A and Hasanovic, H (2020) Voices from Srebrenica: Survivor Narratives of the Bosnian Genocide.

Genocide Education

Never Again must mean Never Again. Learning from genocide and mass atrocities around the world we can understand what to look out for and how to take action.

Bosnia 1992-1995

Bosnia and Herzegovina was considered a melting pot of cultures in which Muslims, Christians, Jews, Catholics and others lived side by side in peace. However, between 1992 and 1995, an inhumane plan was implemented to ethnically cleanse Bosnia of non-Serbs, the majority being Bosniak-Muslims. The genocide in Bosnia was a systematic and industrialised process where vast crimes against humanity took place, such as forcible deportation, murder, rape and torture. The Bosnian genocide resulted in over 100,000 civilians killed, over 2 million people forcible displaced and between 20,000-50,000 women systematically raped.

Cambodia 1976-78

In 1975, following civil war, Cambodia came under the control of the Khmer Rouge. The country was reestablished as a communist society. Civil and property rights were removed and public expression of religion was banned. Believing that Cambodia had been corrupted by the world outside, evidence of Western influence was systematically destroyed and the population was forced into the countryside to undertake agricultural work. Persecution and mass killings of minorities began including ethnic Chinese and Vietnamese, 'intellectuals' and Cham Muslims. Sites of mass atrocities included Tuol Sleng (Prison in Phnom Penh) and rural sites known as the 'Killing Fields'. During the genocide between 1.25 and 3 million Cambodians were killed.

Rwanda Apr-Jul 1994

Following the deaths of the Presidents of Burundi and Rwanda in a plane crash in April 1994 caused by a rocket attack, the Hutu ethnic majority began what became known as the Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. Initially undertaken by the Presidential Guard, the Rwandan Armed Forces (FAR) and Hutu militia groups, the call for violence reached ordinary Rwandan civilians to murder their neighbours. Rewards of food, drink, money and drugs were offered for their services. Within 100 days around 800,000 people were killed and an estimated 150,000 - 250,000 women were raped.

Darfur 2003 - 2005

Between 2003-2005 the Sudanese government forces and the militia group Janjaweed undertook ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa populations in Darfur. This was known as a 'scorched earth campaign' which involved the deliberate burning of homes, villages and crops, forced displacement of people, attacks against and killing of civilians. Around 200,000 people were killed and 2 million forcefully displaced. Rape as a weapon of war was also used.

Large scale attacks on and persecution of individuals on the grounds of race, ethnicity and religion started to decline in 2005 but there has been ongoing political instability in the country. In 2023 further fighting broke out and accusations have been made against the Sudan Armed Forces and Rapid Support Forces of crimes against civilians. By June 2023, it is estimated a further 2.5 million people have been displaced.

Genocide: Learning the Lessons Picture: Grave Embrace by Robert McNeil