08.12.2022, 15:00 - 15:30 Main Stage - Level 0 Human security and transitional justice

Partner:
Lemkin Centre

In response to the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the Pilecki Institute set up the Center for Documenting Russian Crimes in Ukraine under the name of Rafał Lemkin (Lemkin Center) already in the first days after the invasion. The mission of the Lemkin Center is to collect individual eyewitness accounts of the civilian population and create an archive established by scientists that will consolidate the accounts of crimes committed by the Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine

Testimonials in three forms – written questionnaires completed by refugees in Poland and film reports, most often recorded in Ukraine, as well as audio reports – are collected with absolute observance of data security standards and special care for the well-being of witnesses. The Lemkin Center has started cooperation with over a hundred volunteers and collaborators who speak Ukrainian and Russian languages, as well as with researchers of the crimes of 20th-century totalitarian regimes and experts in international law.

During the W4UA Summit, a report will be launched summarizing the work of the Lemkin Center so far. Prof Magdalena Gawin will present a brief information on why and for what purpose it was established, also talking about the methods of our work. Above all, however, the presentation will include information on the number of testimonies collected, detailed information on the number of individual crimes and manifestations of human rights violations, as well as a summary of which oblasts and cities in Ukraine are most numerously represented in the submitted testimonies. We will recall examples of specific crimes, as well as present examples of stories submitted in the form of accounts at the Lemkin Center. In addition, we will indicate some leading topics in the collected material. We will also try to briefly present the picture of the war that emerges from the collected accounts.

Speakers

  • Magdalena Gawin

Moderators