Announcements
MIGS is pleased to announce that Concordia University students Élora Bussière-Ladouceur, Mowahib Hassan Doualeh, and Joshua Sallos-Carter have been named the John Lemieux Student Fellows for the 2022/2023 academic year. Their bios can be found on MIGS’ website.
MIGS will host the fourth and final meeting of the Global Parliamentary Alliance Against Atrocity Crimes (GPAAAC) on the 24th of November. The meeting titled “The Responsibility to React: Action to Protect Ukrainians'' will bring together parliamentarians, experts, and civil society members to discuss ways to better hold Russia accountable for mass atrocity crimes committed in Ukraine.
On 1-6 November, MIGS’ Executive Director Kyle Matthews traveled to Germany, Belgium and France to meet with civil society members and European officials. They spoke about MIGS’ GPAAAC initiative, the war in Ukraine, and discussed future collaborations.
Advocacy
Along with 70 civil society organizations, MIGS signed an open letter to Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany urging him to reconsider his visit in Beijing scheduled for November. You can read the open letter here. MIGS is one of the signatories of an open letter by Access Now calling on Canada to speak out for the release of Alaa Abdel-Fattah. Read the letter here. |
Upcoming Events
|
Recent Events
October 7
Marie Lamensch was a panelist at an online event titled “Les révoltes iraniennes” organized by the Chaire Raoul Dandurand at UQAM. You can listen to an audio version of the discussion here.
October 10
Joana Cook gave a presentation titled “Gender dimensions of the far right: a discussion of recent work contrasting jihadist and far right cases” at a conference organized by the Center for Research on Extremism at the University of Oslo, the Institute of Security and Global Affairs and Leiden University in The Hague.
October 11
Kyle Matthews was an invited speaker in the OSCE’s Office of the Representative on Freedom of the Media workshop on content governance in crises.
October 12
MIGS’ staff attended “Halting hate: A bottom-up approach to understanding and fighting hate speech in the Asia Pacific” hosted by the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience and the Global Action Against Mass Atrocity Crimes.
October 13
MIGS hosted a virtual discussion with Wall Street Journal journalists Josh Chin and Liza Lin to discuss their book "Surveillance State: Inside China’s Quest to Launch a New Era of Social Control". You can watch the discussion on Youtube or listen to the podcast episode.
October 14
Marie Lamensch presented the GPAAC initiative at the 2022 Danyliw Research Seminar on Contemporary Ukraine organized by the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa. You can watch a recording of her talk here.
Senior Distinguished Fellow Roméo Dallaire gave a keynote address at the 5th Annual Genocide Studies Conference titled “The Psychology of Genocide”.
October 18
MIGS staff met with partners at the International Coalition for the Responsibility to Protect to discuss the future of the coalition.
MIGS’ Project Leader Lauren Salim attended the launch of Freedom House’s Freedom on the Net report.
October 19
MIGS hosted the third meeting of the GPAAAC. Titled “Sanctions and Accountability”, the meeting featured Bill Browder (CEO Hermitage Capital Management, Head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign), Samuel Cogolati (Belgian Member of Parliament), Yuliya Kovaliv (Ukrainian Ambassador to Canada) and Janine Di Giovanni (Director of the Reckoning Project Ukraine, Fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs).
MIGS staff attended the 2022 Annual Beaverbrook Lecture organized by the Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy. The event featured Frances Haugen and Jameel Jaffer.
October 20
Joana Cook and her co-author Shiraz Maher held an informal briefing and shared findings of their book “The Rule is for none but Allah”.
MIGS’ staff attended a workshop on “Global Governance of Online Harms” organized by the Centre for media, technology and Democracy at McGill University, and the Centre for International Peace and Security Studies. Speakers included, amongst others, Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Ressa and Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
October 21
MIGS hosted Fellow Eric Meerkamper for a closed door consulation with staff, students and Montreal-based experts to help co-design the Global Digital Authoritarianism Index.
October 25
MIGS Fellow Ewelina Ochab spoke at the launch of Benedict Rogers’ book “The China Nexus”. The event was organized by Optimum Publishing International and chaired by Lord David Alton.
MIGS had the pleasure of hosting delegates from the Centre de recherches, d'études, de documentation et d'information sur la femme (CREDIF) to discuss their initiatives on combating cyber-violence against women in Tunisia.
October 26
MIGS hosted an online discussion titled “Résilience et Confiance: Une Discussion pour la Journée de la citoyenneté numérique”, an event organized in partnership with HabiloMedias, CQÉMI, Agence Science-Presse and La Science d'Abord. Speakers included Pascal Lapointe (editor-in-chief, Agence Science-Presse), Ève Beaudin (journalist, Agence Science-Presse), and Tristan Péloquin (journaliste, La Presse). A recording of the event is available on our Youtube channel.
Lauren Salim attended “Race and Racism: Roots of Atrocity Crimes” a virtual event organized by the United Nations’ Department of Global Communications, The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme.
October 27
MIGS participated in the 4th Annual NGO Community Fair at Concordia University.
October 31
MIGS Fellow Mark Kersten moderated the scholar-practitioner panel “Corporate Violations of International Human Rights” organized by Mark and the ActInCourts network. Lauren Salim attended the talk.
October 29-November 1
Kyle Matthews attended and spoke at the Global Diplomacy Lab’s Incubator Lab titled “Improved Paths towards Environmental Peacebuilding: A Grassroots Efforts Approach to Peacebuilding adapted to Climate Security”. Held in Slovenia, the Lab focused on ways to integrate peacebuilding and climate security. To view an interview on the topic of climate change and human rights featuring Kyle Matthews, click here.
November 2
Marie Lamensch attended an event organized by the Université de Montréal and the Centre d'études et de recherches internationales (CÉRIUM) titled “Le poids des guerres et de l’occupation des territoires.”
November 3
MIGS Fellow Andrei Serbin Pont was a panelist for a discussion on “Problems and challenges of the agenda” during a 2-day conference in Bogotà.
MIGS Fellow Ewelina Ochab participated in a Twitter Space discussion titled “International Relations & the war on Tigray”. You can listen to it here.
November 8
MIGS Executive Director Kyle Matthews and Fellow Eric Meerkamper attended the Council of Europe’s World Forum for Democracy and presented the institute’s Digital Authoritarianism Initiative at a panel discussion titled “Fighting disinformation and the power of social media”.
Lauren Salim attended the Hub for the Study of Hybrid Communication in Peacebuilding’s event “Communication, the arts and peacebuilding in Lebanon”.
November 9
MIGS hosted a Twitter Space titled “Elon Musk Buying Twitter: what does it mean for online hate?”. You can listen to the conversation here.
Marie Lamensch met with members of the British organization StopTheTraffik virtually to discuss the organization’s work on Ukraine and MIGS’ GPAAAC project.
November 11
Project Coordinator Marie Lamensch participated in a dialogue organized by Quebec’s Ministère des Relations internationales et de la Francophonie titled “Diplomatie féministe”.
For Remembrance Day, MIGS Senior Distinguished Fellow Roméo Dallaire reflected on what the day means for him, and spoke about his humanitarian career and his ongoing work with MIGS. Watch the video on Concordia University’s website.
In the Media
October 2
MIGS Fellow Ewelina Ochab wrote an article for Forbes titled “International Community Is Failing The Uyghurs But A Change May Be Ahead”.
October 3
MIGS Fellow Mark Kersten wrote an article for Al Jazeera titled “Justice for war crimes in Ukraine must not be delayed”.
October 6
MIGS Project Coordinator Marie Lamensch spoke to CBC news about the rise of digital authoritarianism, particularly in Iran.
October 7
Marie Lamensch spoke about the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize recipients on Radio Canada’s morning show Tout un matin. She was also interviewed about this subject on Radio Canada’s C’est encore mieux l'après-midi.
October 11
Kyle Matthews spoke to CJAD about the use of digital disinformation by foreign governments and ways to address it.
October 12
Mark Kersten wrote an op-ed titled “Standing up for Justice: Universal Jurisdiction must be part of the Accountability Puzzle in Ukraine” as a part of MIGS' GPAAAC initiative.
October 13
MIGS Digital Fellow Phil Gurski was quoted in the article “CSIS alerted British intelligence that operative had smuggled three teens into Syria in 2015, sources say”.
October 15
Marie Lamensch spoke to TVA Nouvelles about the war in Ukraine and attacks on civilians.
October 24
Kyle Matthews gave an interview to CTV Montreal on the subject of whether “The protests in Iran are a start of a revolution”.
October 26
Ewelina Ochab wrote an article for Forbes titled “Heightened risk of genocide against Tigrayans in Ethiopia”.
Phil Gurski is quoted in a La Presse article titled “Des accusations pour une mère rapatriée de Syrie avec ses enfants”.
Lauren Salim wrote an article for the Human Rights Research Center titled “Human Trafficking in the Canada and the US: An Overview”.
October 30
Ewelina Ochab wrote an article for Forbes titled “What Are Putin’s ‘Filtration Camps’ And Why Are They Concerning?”.
November 1
Ewelina Ochab wrote an article for Forbes titled “ICC Judges Authorize Prosecution To Resume Investigation In Afghanistan”.
November 3
MIGS Fellow Naomi Kikoler was featured in an article for Reuters titled “Reactions to Ethiopia truce deal”.
November 4
MIGS Fellow Phil Gurski was quoted in a CBC News article on the subject of Canada’s terrorist list and the Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
November 7
Ewelina Ochab wrote an article for Forbes titled “Preventing Conflict Related Sexual Violence - The Way Forward”.