Event
CIM

AIPR Board and Staff Honored by Center for Peacebuilding

SANSKI-MOST, BOSNIA & HERZEGOVINA – Three members of the AIPR community are being honored as 2015 Peace Ambassadors by the Center for Peacebuilding (CIM) in Bosnia & Herzegovina. They include AIPR Academic Programs Director Dr. James Waller and AIPR Board Members Sheri Rosenberg and Jan Cohen.

vahidin-1Co-founded by AIPR instructor Vahidin Omanovic, CIM seeks to rebuild trust and foster reconciliation among the people of Bosnia-Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks, and others-as well as to support peace processes in other countries that have suffered from violent conflict. CIM’s annual selection of Peace Ambassadors aims to acknowledge the inspiring work being conducted by modern peacebuilders and to connect like-minded individuals devoted to peace work.

All three recipients work closely towards our shared mission to build a world that prevents genocide. Board Member Jan Cohen, for example, served on a committee that successfully introduced Holocaust and genocide education into New Hampshire’s school curriculum, and in 2006, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch bestowed a commendation for her service and commitment to the students of New Hampshire through her advocacy of Holocaust and genocide education. Keene State College recognized Ms. Cohen with the 2008 President’s Outstanding Women of New Hampshire Award based on her service and leadership, especially in the areas of Holocaust education and women’s equality.

sheriBoard Member Sheri Rosenberg is a frequent instructor at the Lemkin Seminar and Assistant Clinical Professor of Law and Director of the Human Rights and Genocide Clinic and Program in Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Cardozo School of Law. Among her many prestigious appointments, in 2000 the US Department of State selected Sheri to work for the Human Rights Chamber, a quasi-international court established under the Dayton Peace Agreement, in Sarajevo. Sheri was recently chosen to receive the Outstanding Educator Award by the Anne Frank Center USA.

Dr. James Waller joined the Auschwitz Institute staff in July 2012 as Academic Programs Director. From 2008 to 2012, he held the position of AIPR Affiliated Scholar, as well as Curriculum Coordinator for the Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide Prevention. He continues to serve as an instructor at the Lemkin Seminar series, as he has since 2008. In March 2010, Dr. Waller was named Cohen Professor for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Keene State College in New Hampshire. His book on perpetrators of genocide, Becoming Evil: How Ordinary People Commit Genocide and Mass Killing (Oxford University Press, 2002), was released by Oxford in a revised and updated second edition in 2007. Waller also is contracted with Oxford University Press for a book titled, Done to Death: Genocide in the Modern World, with an anticipated publication date of late 2015. His fieldwork has included research in Northern Ireland, the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda, and Argentina.

peace-week-1As Peace Ambassadors, Dr. Waller, Ms. Rosenberg and Ms. Cohen have been invited as distinguished guests to attend 6th annual International Peace Week events in Sanski Most, Bosnia & Herzegovina, from September 16 – 21, 2015. Held since 2010, CIM’s Peace Week features concerts, film screenings, and inter-religious meetings, plus workshops and seminars on topics including peacebuilding, dialogue, and reconciliation.