8th Annual Winter School

Center for the Study of Genocide and Justice (CSGJ), Liberation War Museum organised the 8th Annual Winter School on 'Hatred, Violence and Prevention of Atrocity Crimes' on 21- 28 January 2023 at the Sheikh Hasina National Youth Development Center, Savar. It is an eight-day-long residential programme to train students, young professionals, and early career researchers from multidisciplinary fields on genocide and justice. This time, a total of 33 participants from 17 universities coming from Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Thailand attended the School. The participants engaged in lectures, panel discussions, group activities and presentations, museum visits, a field trip to the memorial site, film and documentary screening, interaction with members of martyrs' families, cultural activities, and Non-judicial Hearing (submission on a hypothetical case).

It featured a range of national and international leading and practising experts, academics, and scholars in the field of genocide and justice from India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Canada, and Indonesia. Ambassador Mashfee Binte Shams (Rector, Foreign Service Academy), Professor Adam Muller (University of Manitoba, Canada), Dr. Navras Aafreedi (Presidency University, India), Dr. Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (Former Professor, Shahjalal University of Science & Technology), Patrick Burgess, Pia Conradsen and Tati Krisnawaty (AJAR, Indonesia), Man Sokkoeun (Youth for Peace, Cambodia), Dr. Mohammad Mozahidul Islam (Jahangirnagar University), Professor Sheikh Hafizur Rahman Karzon and Dr. Samina Lutfa Nitra (Dhaka University), and others facilitated various sessions for the Winter School participants to proficient their understanding regarding atrocity crimes through the lens of law, history, sociology, psychology, peace and conflict education, and transitional justice.

The programme was enhanced by interactive sessions where attendees expressed their views and opinions, shared ideas, and engaged in lively discussions with the facilitators, resident mentors as well as their peers. Following the lecture sessions, the participants not only acquainted themselves with the film and documentary on the liberation war but also got the opportunity to interact with the family members of the martyrs.

Furthermore, one of the key features of the programme was a day-long visit to Terashree, Manikganj, that aimed to enlighten the participants about the 1971 genocide from the perspective of the victims and their successors. Apart from these academic sessions, the participants took part in cultural events and festivals like pitha utshob (Bengali cake festival) which helped them understand complex and sensitive topics in a friendly and inclusive atmosphere.

The 8th Annual Winter School concluded with presentation by the participants on the Declaration of Intent expressing their experiences, commitments and key takeaways from the School and a Non-judicial Hearing on a fictional case where they performed in a shadow trial to understand the functionality of multi-layer adjudication mechanisms available in international justice forums.

At the closing ceremony, Rear Admiral (retd.) Md. Khurshed Alam, the Secretary in-charge of Maritime Affairs Unit, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, was the guest of honour and handed over certificates and awards to the participants. The Best Performance Award for the outstanding submission at the Non-judicial Hearing went to Waidatul Akmam Tasin from Cumilla University; while Nushrat Nowrin Shozola from Chittagong University received the Academic Excellence Award and Asif Mahmud Mahee from Dhaka University bagged the Overall Best Performance Award.

Event covered by Tabassum Niger Oishi, CSGJ Zia Uddin Tariq Ali Research Fellow, Liberation War Museum.