Online Class: Genocide and Accountability

In this three session online class, Professor Steve Swerdlow will explore the history, meaning and modern implications of genocide and mass atrocities. The class will begin by exploring the history of the term genocide, how it differs from ethnic cleansing, and the Genocide Convention of 1948. Then, focusing on the aftermath of Rwanda and Bosnia in the 1990s, the class will cover the international mechanisms to prevent genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes and to punish perpetrators. In the final session, Professor Swerdlow will conclude by sharing his own field work on this subject from Ukraine, the South Caucuses and Central Asia.

Steve Swerdlow, esq. is Associate Professor of the Practice of Human Rights in the Department of Political and International Relations at the University of Southern California. A human rights lawyer and expert on the former Soviet region, Swerdlow was Senior Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, heading the organization’s work on Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, and founding its Kyrgyzstan field office. Swerdlow has worked as a consultant with the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the International Labour Organization (ILO). Earlier Swerdlow was a fellow in the U.S. State Department’s Young Leaders for Public Service program in Russia and worked as a human rights monitor for the Union of Council for Soviet Jews (UCSJ) as their Caucasus monitor in Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia as well as with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Russia.

Register HERE