MuseumDESCRIPTION:
In 2004, as a student at Swarthmore College and as the grandson of Holocaust Survivors, Mark Hanis could not remain idle as genocide raged in Darfur, and founded a student group to raise funds for the African Union. Mark transformed that young organization into a well-known NGO, the Genocide Intervention Network, leading the fight against the genocide emergency in Darfur. He discusses GI-Net’s newest initiative, Darfur Scores, and explains the upcoming Power to Protect campaign they are launching with STAND.
TRANSCRIPT:
JERRY FOWLER: This is Voices on Genocide Prevention; I am Jerry Fowler.
JERRY FOWLER: My guest today is Mark Hanis, founder and Executive Director of the Genocide Intervention Network. Mark, welcome to the program.
MARK HANIS: Thanks Jerry; it is great to be on.
JERRY FOWLER: Mark, the Genocide Intervention Network is on the one hand, a relatively new organization, and on the other hand, its name is popping up everywhere. It has been covered on National Public Radio, NBC, and one of these cases where Voices on Genocide Prevention is maybe behind the curve. How did GI-Net get started?
MARK HANIS: It got started in October 2004 with me and my classmate, Andrew Sniderman, in the cafeteria; we were just reading the newspaper about what was happening in Darfur, and were sort of shocked at how that same year, all the world’s leaders went to Rwanda pledging, “Never Again,” and yet it was happening right at the same time, and sort of, we asked a very simple question, “What can we do about it?” Then we started doing research, and we came across Samantha Power’s book, “A Problem from Hell,” and really focused in on her call for both focusing on security and political will. We sort of took these two calls for action to create the Genocide Intervention Network.
JERRY FOWLER: You say you were sitting in the cafeteria. This was at Swarthmore College, right?
MARK HANIS: Yes, right at Swarthmore College, and after the meal, we just skipped class and went to the library to start doing this research.
JERRY FOWLER: How did you get from being two guys with a lot of energy and willingness to skip classes at Swarthmore to now, a nationally recognized organization?
MARK HANIS: We were extremely fortunate in having a lot of the experts that have spoken on Voices on Genocide Prevention, like Gayle Smith and John Prendergast, to come and to support our idea of citizens taking action by fundraising for civilian protection. Once we had these people endorse us and then join our advisory board, it was a lot easier to move along and get the support of other experts as well as American citizens.
JERRY FOWLER: What about your fellow students? Was there already some kind of movement at foot at Swarthmore, or did you have to start from scratch?
MARK HANIS: We had the semester before done a genocide awareness month, in April 2004. It was sort of eerie how a lot of the genocides are commemorated in April—Cambodia, Armenia, the Holocaust—so we did different events on campus about these different genocides. The student body was already fertile for talking about Darfur and taking action, but there were definitely students that we had to start from scratch.
JERRY FOWLER: In terms of your own approach to this, it has been remarked upon in a number of places that you are the grandson of Holocaust Survivors. What role did that part of your family history play in your own interest?
MARK HANIS: It had a huge affect. It is part of who I am. My mom’s parent, my mom’s mom fled on the Kinder transport to Scotland, so my mom was born and raised in Scotland. My dad’s parents fled to Ecuador, and he was born and raised in Ecuador, and I also was raised in Ecuador. Whenever people say, “Where are you from?” and I say Ecuador, they say, “How come,” the next word out of my mouth is “the Holocaust.” My identity is intricately connected to genocide.
JERRY FOWLER: You say that, you have made that connection there between the family history and the issue of genocide. On one hand, that is to many people, a logical connection, but it is also possible to make other connections such as to support for the state of Israel, to other social issues, how is that you were focused on genocide in particular?
MARK HANIS: I guess growing up in Ecuador, both being Jewish in a country that was extremely Catholic, it was clear that I was a minority because of my religion, but also because the majority of the Jews—perhaps similar to other countries in Latin America and elsewhere in the world—were Jewish refugees from the Holocaust, so they always stressed in a lot of the images and conversations during services, Shabbat services, were about the Holocaust and how never again, we cannot allow this ever again. While people did talk about Israel and other issues of social justice, the root, the thing that unified the Jewish community in Ecuador was the Holocaust.
JERRY FOWLER: How large is that community?
MARK HANIS: It was about a hundred families when I was there.
JERRY FOWLER: So very, very tiny.
MARK HANIS: Extremely small, yes.
JERRY FOWLER: How did you end up coming to the United States?
MARK HANIS: I was fortunate enough to be born in the United States, so I had American citizenship, and then when I graduated from high school, I came to the United States to go to college at Swarthmore. That is how the move happened.
JERRY FOWLER: Are your folks still in Ecuador?
MARK HANIS: No, we all moved together. My sister actually left before me; she is three years older, so she also came to the United States to study, but me and my parents left at the same time to come to the United States, and they are in Florida, and I ended up outside of Philadelphia.
JERRY FOWLER: What do they think about this? They might have had aspirations for you to be a doctor or a lawyer, and here you are running a small NGO.
MARK HANIS: My Jewish mom would definitely want one of those two professions—the lawyer or the doctor, but no, they are extremely proud of what I am doing. They are very excited that I love doing what I am doing, and that I am obviously doing something that hits very close to home for them. I am doing it in a way that is effective.
JERRY FOWLER: Are your grandparents still alive?
MARK HANIS: I have only got one grandmother that is alive, since I was born, and she was the one who was able to escape on the Kinder transport, and she lived in Scotland.
JERRY FOWLER: Have you talked to her about Darfur and what you are doing?
MARK HANIS: Yes, yes, I e-mail her the updates, and she is a member, so she gets all the updates on what we are doing.
JERRY FOWLER: Let us get to what you are doing. Obviously, the main focus of what of the Genocide Intervention Network has been Darfur, and you have just released a Darfur Scorecard of members of Congress. Tell me about that.
MARK HANIS: This is our latest project, and we are really excited about how we are holding every member of Congress accountable on how they have responded to stopping the genocide in Darfur. As opposed to previously where we sort of nudge and pledge and plead that they do more on Darfur, we are actually saying, “You have not co-sponsored or voted for the key piece of legislation on Darfur, and therefore, you have earned an F on Darfur; you have earned a B-.” Fortunately, there are members of Congress that have gotten A’s all the way, unfortunately down to F. This is the first time that we are using a technique to hold members of Congress accountable for what they are doing or not doing.
JERRY FOWLER: Stepping back, before we get into the details, their grades A-F. What kind of curve is there? Is it a belt curve? Are more people failing than passing?
MARK HANIS: Yes, more people are failing unfortunately than passing, but it is really exciting how it is not a partisan issue which everyone always talks about as happening in D.C. You have got champions in the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, as well as people that are failing. I would say the majority of people are not doing enough; they are sort of passing the buck, or just sliding back, but you have got definite champions on both sides that are being vocal and pushing their colleagues to do more.
JERRY FOWLER: What are the components of the grades? What are the things that you look at? What are the things that people are not doing that they could do in order to improve their score?
MARK HANIS: Sure, so we look at key pieces of legislation such as the Darfur Accountably Act and the Darfur Peace and Accounatbility Act, and looking at other bills that call for more civilian protection. It depends on both the Senate and the House. In the Senate, we look at three pieces of legislation—as I mentioned the Darfur Accountability Act, the Darfur Peace and Accounatbility Act and the Senate Resolution calling for more response, proposing potential NATO deployment of troops—so we look at how they co-sponsored or voted on the legislation. In the House, we look at five pieces of legislation—the Darfur Genocide Accountability Act, the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act, the NATO bridging force resolution, and then two appropriations bills, one for protection, the other for humanitarian aid. That is how we are able to have this range of grades, because some have done well on different pieces of legislation. Then we also have extra credit legislation, so we do have grades that have pluses and minuses depending on specific amendments.
JERRY FOWLER: It is one thing for you or for me, for that matter, to come up with the scorecard and to say to Congressperson X, “You are getting a D; that is not good,” and the person may or may not care. Who they really listen to are their bosses, their constituents. How is the scorecard tied in to efforts by constituents?
MARK HANIS: The first part is that we have been extremely strategic on how we have come up with these grades. We have consulted with current members of Congress and current Congressional staffers, and former ones, and experts on genocide, making sure the criteria that we are basing these on are valid. The way that constituents are basing it on are the same things that we have been pushing for in previous activities, whether it is calling members of Congress to increasing funding for the African Union troops, or increasing aid, so all the criteria that we are basing it on have been issues that our constituents and members have been pushing for in the past, and are still doing so in the present.
JERRY FOWLER: That was really kind of, what I was asking was do you have members in the congressional districts or the states, for that matter, of the people that are getting low grades, and what are you doing to mobilize those people, and what are you asking those people to do?
MARK HANIS: Right, we are asking people to obviously go to the web site, www.darfurscores.org, and see exactly what there members are doing, and then we provide them with different ways to take action. One is obviously, contact their office and ask why their member is not getting an A+ on stopping genocide. Then we give them different tools on either writing their member of Congress or calling or emailing them, all the way to writing letters to the editor in their local newspaper, and not only demanding that their member of Congress does more, but also informing their other constituents about how they are doing on stopping the genocide.
JERRY FOWLER: What are the kind of specific one, two, or three steps that you would ask constituents demand of someone with a low grade in order to raise the grade?
MARK HANIS: The first thing they would obviously need to do is alert them that we are actually keeping an eye on what they are doing. The second thing is to ensure that they are passing the current piece of legislation, so that includes the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act which is sort of in Conference. A Conference Committee has not been created yet, so we need to push these members of Congress to create this Committee. Then, obviously, there is ensuring that the next appropriations cycle, or the next funding cycle, includes funding for civilian protection. Currently, it is the African Union; soon, hopefully, it will be the United Nations. Those are the big key things on pushing members of Congress, and then, obviously, that includes contacting them from where constituents are, but also meeting with them. For example, right now, it is summer recess; they should be meeting with them. Then, as the midterm elections happen, they should be asking these questions during town hall meetings or any other public events that the member of Congress is speaking at, and then, obviously, again, talking to the media about it. Finally, telling friends about how to do those other steps I just mentioned.
JERRY FOWLER: I think most people who listen to Voices on Genocide Prevention will be aware that September 17th is going to be a Global Day of Action for Darfur, including events in New York and elsewhere in the world, San Francisco, I think. I am sure you will be involved in those, but apart from September 17th, do you have other activities planned for this fall?
MARK HANIS: Yes, GI-Net and STAND—the leading student organization on preventing stopping genocide—are planning to launch a campaign called “Time to Protect,” and this campaign is to really emphasize the urgency that you cannot just call it genocide like Congress and the President did in 2004; you have actually got to follow that up with action. We are launching that on September 7th with vigils, at as many locations as possible. Then there is going to be the very successful Darfur Fast that was held last year with students from across the country getting involved, as well as non-students. Then we are also going to be pushing for people to really pressure their elected officials during the midterm elections to make Darfur an issue and be proud that stopping genocide should be something that we should want to vote for them to remain in office or get into office. Finally what is exciting is that we are going to hold regional conferences all across the country, about six or seven regional conferences, to raise awareness for those that do not already know about it, and then start to empower them with the tools to be able to stop genocide, whether to do better to educate others about what is happening, to better pressure the public officials, and then finally to fundraise for civilian protection.
JERRY FOWLER: You call yourself, your organization is the Genocide Intervention Network, and not the Darfur Intervention Network, and obviously, many of us who are working in this field are focused on Darfur right now, but what are your plans beyond Darfur? Are you starting to look at other areas, or are you exclusively focused on Darfur?
MARK HANIS: No, we are definitely not exclusively focused on Darfur because we know that Darfur, obviously, is not the first genocide, and unfortunately, it probably will not be the last genocide. We are really interesting in taking a two-prong approach. One where we look at either current genocides or potential genocides, and we often look to experts like Juan Mendez who has been on Voices on Genocide Prevention, and to the Committee on Conscience to look at other places like Eastern Sudan. We are really concerned about Chechnya, Burma and Ivory Coast. Those are other specific locations that we are interested in looking at in addition to Darfur. Then the other second track which we are really excited about is looking at structural changes to genocide.
JERRY FOWLER: Or genocide prevention.
MARK HANIS: Sorry?
JERRY FOWLER: You said structural changes to genocide—
MARK HANIS: Genocide prevention—you are right—so we are sort of focusing on three structural changes. One is mandatory genocide education. As far as we understand it, there are only six states that require public schools to teach about the Holocaust. We want to make this, to expand this type of education to look at the Holocaust and other genocides in all fifty states. We are also interested in making a more robust early warning system so that we do not have to wait so many years—or days in the case of Rwanda—to be able to react. Then the last one we are looking at is the United Nations Emergency Peace Service so that the United Nations can respond much faster than the standard six to nine months when violence erupts, as the case right now.
JERRY FOWLER: Let me ask you about that real quick. Each of those issues that you have outlined, we could spend a whole episode on, and we probably will, but this idea of a United Nations Emergency Peace Service is one that has started to be kicked around more recently, although even though people have talked about it for a long time, there are a lot of political obstacles, starting with both the permanent members of the Security Council, and then a lot of non-permanent members who are concerned about having a force that might be readily available to violate their sovereignty. Do you think that there is much potential to actually create that force?
MARK HANIS: I think that if it is framed and explained correctly, yes, I think there is a lot of potential for that. I think it is very similar to the International Criminal Court in the sense that it complements. It is not supposed to replace or be the global police force that goes into any country, violating sovereignty. It goes in when that country itself, cannot because it is unwilling or unable to protect its own citizens from genocide or mass atrocities. In some cases, some people talk about large-scale natural disasters. If you see something like the Tsunami, where the Indonesian government could not take care and protect its own citizens, and what happened in our case is that American citizens went to help out, but in this case, you could have the United Nations Emergency Peace Service, or in the case of Rwanda, where it happened in a hundred days, we would not have to wait six to nine months; it could happen immediately, and do so in a legitimate way.
JERRY FOWLER: Mark Hanis is founder and Executive Director of the Genocide Intervention Network. Mark, thanks again for joining us.
MARK HANIS: Thank you very much Jerry.
JERRY FOWLER: You have been listening to Voices on Genocide Prevention, from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. To learn more about our efforts to prevent and respond to genocide, join us on the web at www.ushmm.org/conscience where you can also find the Voices on Genocide Prevention blog.
