When the Myanmar military overthrew a parliamentary government in Feb. 2021, people filled the streets in protest. Met with violence, they have continued a nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement and many have taken up arms in a “Generation Z” war of resistance. The coup regime strikes back with attacks, arson and executions. Two speakers with first hand knowledge of this human rights crisis will show how the anti-coup groundswell is succeeding against the odds and what challenges it faces.

Portland author and activist Edith Mirante will provide an overview of Myanmar (Burma) since the 2021 coup and report on her recent trip to the India/Myanmar border, where she interviewed refugees and visited resistance camps in Chin State’s Thantlang war zone.

Ei Thin Zar, founder and director of People's Radio Myanmar and a Ph.D. candidate in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will share the work of young people from different ethnic and social groups who are creating a community of resistance and education in the phase of very adverse circumstances in Burma.

This discussion is free and open to the public and is presented in partnership by Amnesty International Group 48, Never Again Coalition, PSU’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project and WorldOregon.

*Please note: Attendees need to enter the SW Broadway entrance only and take the elevator to the third floor.

Questions? Email info@neveragaincoalition.org

DARFUR: 20 YEARS OF ATROCITIES

Please join us for a panel discussion on the ongoing crisis in Darfur and its links to the current situation in Sudan. It has been 20 years since mass atrocities began in Darfur, Sudan. In 2004, the U.S. government determined that genocide was occurring. To this day, survivors continue to be attacked and violently displaced without access to security, justice and basic necessities. Congress has consistently shown bipartisan support for ending violence against civilians in Darfur, addressing the root causes of instability, and pushing for justice and accountability. The panel discussion, taking place during  Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month, and under the unfolding conflict between SAF and RSF, will reflect on lessons learned over the past two decades, provide analysis of the current situation, and examine what is needed to bring about genuine freedom, peace and justice in Darfur and all of Sudan. 

Date: Thursday, April 20th

Time: 2:00 - 3:30 pm ET

RSVP to attend in person

Join virtually through this link.

**Please not that you need to download Webex to join virtually.

This event is co-hosted by Human Rights Watch, US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide, Amnesty International USA, The Sentry, Refugees International, Never Again Coalition, Sudan Unlimited, iACT and Stop Genocide Now

Panelists:
Mohamed Osman, Sudan Researcher, Human Rights Watch 
Felicia Lee, Global Programs Manager, iACT
Haitham Elnour, Girifna
Suliman Baldo, Director, Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker

Moderator: Nicole Widdersheim, Deputy Washington Director, Human Rights Watch
Introductory Remarks: Naomi Kikoler, Director, US Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Simon-Skjodt Center for the Prevention of Genocide

In Remembrance of Kristallnacht, OJMCHE is hosting a screening of Three Minutes A Lengthening, a film based on a home movie shot by David Kurtz in 1938 in a Jewish town in Poland. The three minutes of footage are the only moving images left of the Jewish inhabitants of Nasielsk before the Holocaust. Actress Helena Bonham Carter narrates the film essay. A short discussion will take place after the film screening.
This program is co-sponsored by Never Again Coalition and PSU’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program.

In observance of Genocide Awareness month, The Immigrant Story, in collaboration with NW Documentary, presents a unique collection of five short documentaries portraying the extraordinary lives of seven survivors of the Holocaust, genocide and atrocities of war. These stories are told in the first person, personalizing these compelling narratives and offering powerful testimonies to survival. These five short anthologies reveal the emotional weight of the search for a peaceful home. NW Film Center will lead a talk back following the film.

RESTORING CULTURE TO COMBAT GENOCIDE: ROHINGYA STORIES OF HOPE
A CONVERSATION WITH YASMIN ULLAH AND MAX FRIEDER 

April 14, 12pm PDT (zoom)

The Rohingya of Burma have been called the most persecuted community on the globe. For decades, the Burmese military has sustained a genocidal campaign aimed at erasing the Rohingya through any means possible, including the stripping of rights - education, worship, livelihoods, citizenship and more. In the face of this relentless campaign, the Rohingya within Burma and throughout the world have persevered. Join us for a discussion with Rohingya activist Yasmin Ullah and Artolution executive director Max Frieder about the work that Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh are doing to restore culture through creative projects and finding stories of hope despite the obstacles and struggles the community faces. 

This event is part of Rising Up for Human Dignity: Resisting Cultural Erasure

Presented in partnership by: Never Again Coalition, Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland State University's Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project, WorldOregon and The Immigrant Story, Japanese American Museum of Oregon, Portland Chinatown Museum, Native Arts and Culture Foundation, and Five Oaks Museum

April 14, 6am PDT via zoom
Turning Recognition into Action: What Does the Rohingya Genocide Determination Mean for Burma
A diverse panel of speakers will discuss the Biden Administration’s formal decision to determine that the violence committed against the Rohingya amounts to genocide, what it means for the people of Burma, and the necessary steps to ensure meaningful response.

Featured Speakers:
Steven Rapp, Former Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues
Aung Myo Min, Minister for Human Rights of the Unity Government of Burma
Day Myar, Project Manager for Peace Building with Karenni Women’s Organization
Sharifa Shakira, Executive Director, Rohingya Women Development Network

More info and register here.

RESISTING CULTURAL ERASURE IN AMERICA
A CONVERSATION WITH JENNIFER FANG AND BARRETT HOLMES PITNER

Ethnocide, a word first coined in 1944 by Jewish exile Raphael Lemkin (who also coined the term "genocide"), describes the systemic erasure of a people’s ancestral culture. Just as the concept of genocide radically reshaped our perception of human rights in the twentieth century, reframing discussions about race and culture in terms of ethnocide can change the way we understand our diverse and rapidly evolving racial and political climate today. Join us for a conversation with author Barrett Holmes Pitner and historian Jennifer Fang on ethnocide in America, and its particular impacts on Black and Chinese Americans, who have endured that erasure for generations. Pitner and Fang will discuss the personal lived consequences of existing within an ongoing erasure—and how to combat it.

This event is part of Rising Up for Human Dignity: Resisting Cultural Erasure

Presented in partnership by: Never Again Coalition, Oregon Historical Society, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland State University's Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project, WorldOregon and The Immigrant Story, Japanese American Museum of Oregon, Portland Chinatown Museum, Native Arts and Culture Foundation, and Five Oaks Museum

The Immigrant Story invite you to join them on April 1 for the second edition of “I Am My Story: Voices of Hope.” Kicking off at 7 p.m. at Portland’s First Congregational United Church of Christ (1126 SW Park Ave., Portland 97205), this memorable evening will honor the voices and music of survivors of genocides and atrocities of war.

Storytellers from Bosnia, Rwanda, and Syria will present remarkable, first-person tales of courage, fortitude and resilience in the face of unimaginable challenges. These powerful sagas offer hope and inspiration at a time when those qualities are sometimes in short supply.

“I Am My Story Live'' will kick off performances from two world-class musicians. Ahmad Fanoos is one of Afghanistan’s most famous Ghazal singers. The music of Fanoos was shut down during the Taliban takeover in 1994. Finally, after the most recent Taliban takeover, Fanoos managed to escape to the United States in October 2021 with the help of a group of journalists. He will be joined on the stage by his son Elham Fanoos, an accomplished classical pianist.

From 8-9 p.m., the three storytellers will share the stories of the arduous journeys that brought them to the United States.
This free event is made possible by a generous contribution from the Zidell Family Foundation. Programming has been done with the support of the Oregon Humanities and Oregon Heritage Fund.

Proof of Vaccination is required to enter the auditorium.

While in the auditorium, the audience must wear masks.

Audience will leave alternate seats vacant. This will restrict the total number of audience present to 250 at any time. Note that to simplify our procedures, even people who arrive together will be asked to leave alternate seats vacant.

This event deals with stories of trauma. The stories are lived experiences of survivors of war and genocide that may not be suitable for all audiences.

The content is not suitable for children under 12.

This February, 12 Portland-area restaurants and bakeries will feature chocolate desserts and pastries to benefit the people of eastern Congo. $1 from each mouth-watering dessert at participating businesses will benefit Action Kivu and Eastern Congo Initiative - non-profits investing in the women, children and communities of eastern Congo. Theo Chocolate, who now sources more than 100% of its chocolate from the Congo, has generously donated the chocolate for the benefit. Desserts are available all of February throughout Portland, giving you 29 days to see if you can try them all.

More details are on our Chocolate for Congo page.

The escalating use and misuse of Holocaust imagery and Nazi comparisons in contemporary political life and popular culture is a disturbing trend that is worrying, and dangerous. This phenomenon, on a scale unprecedented in American political culture, demands that we understand and engage those who politicize Holocaust memory. Is Holocaust memory uniquely susceptible to such abuse and distortion? Can we protect its accurate representation? Join us for a conversation with Omer Bartov, John P. Birkelund Distinguished Professor of European History at Brown University. The program will be moderated by Steven M. Wasserstrom, Moe and Izetta Tonkon Professor of Judaic Studies and the Humanities Reed College. The program is co-sponsored by the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project at Portland State University, the Never Again Coalition, and OJMCHE.

Watch a recording of this event here.

This program is the inaugural lecture of the Herbert and Ella Ostroff Endowment Fund. 

Ella Ostroff was a Hungarian survivor who, along with her mother, two of her three sisters, and her brother, were deported to Auschwitz in 1944. Ella’s mother and brother were murdered in the gas chambers upon arrival. Ella and two of her sisters survived for nearly a year shuffling between Auschwitz, Birkenau, and Dachau. After being liberated by American soldiers on April 30, 1945, they lived for two years in a displaced person’s camp where they were reunited with their oldest sister. The sisters immigrated to the United States on September 21, 1947. Ella met Herbert in 1948 in upstate New York. They eventually settled in Portland, Oregon where they raised three children.

Herbert and Ella believed that education is the best way to prevent another Holocaust.  Through living testimonies of survivors and on-going education about how the Holocaust happened, they believed that future generations would learn from the past and the experiences that Ella and her family endured during Second World War will never happen again.

A recording of this event can be found here.

How can photography and film be utilized to raise awareness about atrocities? What is the role of the photographer or filmmaker in these situations, and what are their responsibilities to the communities whose stories they’re trying to lift up? Join us for a discussion with a group of photographers and filmmakers to explore their own experiences and the ongoing work of documenting personal histories of atrocities moderated by Julia Dolan, The Minor White Curator of Photography at the Portland Art Museum. Partners for this event are Oregon Jewish Museum, WorldOregon and the Center for Holocaust Education and Portland State University’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project.

Skye Fitzgerald founded Spin Film to bear witness to unfolding crises with the intent to deepen empathy and understanding. He recently completed the Humanitarian Trilogy – three films on global displacement due to war. The first, 50 FEET FROM SYRIA focuses on doctors working on the Syrian border and was voted onto the Oscar shortlist. The second, LIFEBOAT, documents Search and Rescue operations off the coast of Libya and was nominated for an Academy Award and national Emmy award. The third, HUNGER WARD, explores the impact of the war and famine in Yemen on children, families, and healthcare workers and was also nominated for an Academy Award. As a Fulbright Research Scholar Fitzgerald directed the film BOMBHUNTERS and has worked with the Sundance Institute, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the State Department, and Mountainfilm. Fitzgerald is an honorary member of SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society) for his work with Syrian refugees and a member of the Documentary Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Before filmmaking, Fitzgerald cut fire-lines as a Hotshot crew-member on a wild-land fire-fighting crew. He continues to ride his bicycle to ruin and hugs two dogs on a daily basis.

Greg Constantine is an independent documentary photographer, author, and researcher who has dedicated his career to stories and projects that focus on human rights, inequality, identity and the power of the State. He spent eleven years working on the acclaimed project Nowhere People, (2006-2016) which was a global exploration documenting the lives and struggles of individuals and ethnic communities around the world who had had their citizenship denied or stripped from them by governments, mostly because of discrimination and intolerance. He is the author of three books: Kenya’s Nubians: Then & Now (2011), Exiled To Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya (2012), and Nowhere People (2015). Exhibitions of his work have been held in over 40 cities worldwide. He is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Queen Mary University of London in collaboration with the International State Crime Initiative. In 2016 he earned his PhD from Middlesex University in the UK. Constantine has spent 15 years documenting the ongoing abuses against the Rohingya. The US Holocaust Memorial Museum is currently hosting an exhibit he curated, Burma’s Path to Genocide. He is currently working on the project Seven Doors, exploring how governments are increasingly using detention as a significant component of immigration and asylum policy and exposes the impact, trauma and human cost detention has on asylum seekers, refugees, stateless people and migrants around the world.

Roopa Gogineni is a photographer and filmmaker from West Virginia, based in Atlanta and Paris. Over the past ten years her work has focused on historical memory and life amidst conflict in East Africa. She holds an MSc in African Studies from the University of Oxford, where she researched the construction of media narratives around Somalia. Her most recent short film I am Bisha was featured on The New York Times Op-Docs and earned the Oscar-qualifying Full Frame Jury Award for Best Short. Roopa currently advises a cohort of doctoral students using visual methodology in their study of pastoralism and uncertainty at The Institute of Development Studies. Roopa is a proud member of Brown Girls Doc Mafia, Diversify Photo, Women Photograph, and The Authority Collective. She speaks French, Spanish, and Telugu and gets by in Swahili and Arabic. She has completed first aid and hostile environment training.

John Rudoff is a photojournalist and documentary photographer based in Portland. In recent years he's covered certain political and social upheavals and crises -- refugees fleeing to southern Europe or to Bangladesh; 'precarious', frightened, angry workers in France; the hunger for democracy in Hong Kong; violent and authoritarian politics and protests across America, following the words: "Where the majority of people do not want to be, I function as their eye." As a photojournalist John sheds light on some of the dark places, knowing that when the truth is documented and revealed, "nobody can say they did not know." He is represented by Sipa-USA.

Julia Dolan has curated, co-curated, or hosted over 40 photography exhibitions since joining the Portland Art Museum in 2010. She is a member of the Museum’s Equity Team, and was a co-founder of the FOCUS group, a North American network of emerging photography curators, historians, and nonprofit professionals. Dr. Dolan’s exhibitions at the Museum include Hank Willis Thomas: All Things Being Equal… (with Sara Krajewski, 2019-20), Toughened to Wind and Sun: Women Photographing the Landscape (2019-20), In the Beginning: Minor White’s Oregon Photographs (2017-2018), Representing: Vernacular Photographs of, by, and for African Americans (2017), Contemporary Native Photographers and the Edward Curtis Legacy: Zig Jackson, Wendy Red Star, Will Wilson (with Dr. Deana Dartt, 2016), and Blue Sky: The Oregon Center for the Photographic Arts at 40 (2014). She has published essays in multiple publications. Dr. Dolan received a B.F.A. in Photography from the Maryland Institute College of Art, an M.A. in Art History from the Pennsylvania State University, and a Ph.D. in Art History from Boston University. She has worked with the photography collections at institutions including the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Addison Gallery of American Art, and the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University.

Photo by Greg Constantine

A number of events are taking place on and around August 25th to commemorate the brutal campaign of violence launched on August 25, 2017. Please visit the August 25th event page to learn more about live events, letter writing campaigns and more.

Learn more HERE.

Theo Chocolate has been our partner since the beginning of Chocolate for Congo and we couldn't be more excited about this upcoming event.

Tuesday, June 1 at 12pm PT our friends at WorldOregon are hosting a conversation on the UN's International Labor Union on their work to combat child labor and fighting exploitative practices in the chocolate sector and Theo's approach to conflict-free business practice —from farm to chocolate bar—and how they have modeled ethical sourcing, transparency, and socially responsible choices.

Register HERE.

Putting meaning behind "Never Again" is at the core of our mission. We know that we must look back at past events to learn how to prevent or end atrocities from occurring today. In honor of Holocaust Remembrance Day, we are joining with Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and PSU’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies Project to present a screening and discussion around the film Trezoros: The Lost Jews of Kastoria.

Register for free HERE. Watch the film between January 24-27 and then join the panel discussion on January 27 at 6pm via zoom.

Panel discussion includes Larry Confino, Director/Producer; Lawrence Russo, Director, Dr. Joe Halio who served on the film as a consultant on Sephardic history; and Andrea Grass, who provided important archival photos and film to the project through her family.

About the film: Using never-before-seen pre-war archival footage and first-person testimonies, Trezoros: The Lost Jews of Kastoria chronicles the Jewish life and culture of Kastoria, a picturesque lakeside village in the mountains of Northwestern Greece, near the Albania border. Here, Jews and Greek Orthodox Christians lived together in harmony for more than two millennia until World War II, when this long and rich history would be wiped out in the blink of an eye. Trezoros (the Ladino/Judeo-Spanish term of endearment meaning “Treasures”) takes us from the joyful innocence of the pre-war years through the heartbreaking struggles of the Holocaust, to a unique place in time and history of a Greek Jewish culture lost forever. Watch the trailer HERE.

Please join us for an exclusive screening of Not Just Football: from genocide to the World Cup at the fourth annual iACT for Refugees event by iACT and Never Again Coalition, and generously hosted by Vacasa. 

This inspiring documentary is the original story of Darfur United, an all-refugee men's soccer team co-created by iACT and refugees from Darfur living in camps on the Chad-Sudan border. The documentary chronicles their unbelievable journey from refugee camps to the 2012 Viva World Cup in Iraq, giving them a world stage on which to represent their people—and all refugees.  

Before the movie, enjoy wine and local beer provided by Leikam Brewing and Flat Brim Wines and indulge in delicious small bites from Stella Taco. You'll be able to do this while mingling with iACT Founder, Chief of Vision and Strategy, Gabriel Stauring, Darfur United Head Coach, Mark Hodson, and a Darfur United player from the refugee camps in eastern Chad. The event will offer opportunities to support refugee athletes and students, and win unique raffle items including vacation home rentals, restaurant gift certificates, sporting event tickets, and much, much more.

This year has been witness to extreme violence and tension in the country of Sudan. Darfur United truly represents a movement of hope for Darfuris, Sudanese, and displaced people worldwide. Purchase tickets and join us as we share and lift up the voices and stories of the refugees from Darfur, Sudan. 

Tickets: 
$30 (includes two drink tokens and complimentary small bites)

6:00pm | Doors Open

6:45pm | Not Just Football: from genocide to the World Cup screening begins

8:00pm | Q&A Panel with Mark Hodson, Darfur United Head Coach and Gabriel Stauring, iACT Founder, Chief of Vision and Strategy

9:30pm | Raffle Winners Announced, Evening Concludes

Come witness the journey from genocide to the World Cup.

Dr. Jim Peck, PSU graduate student Anis Zaman, and photographer David Ewald have all spent time in Kutupalong mega-camp where over a million Rohingya refugees are currently living after fleeing genocide in their home country of Burma/Myanmar. Join them for a conversation on what their experiences were in providing aid and medical care to Rohingya refugees and David's project to put cameras into the hands of Rohingya refugee youth.  Free and open to the public.

This program is presented in collaboration with the photography exhibit Exiled to Nowhere by documentary photographer Greg Constantine, on view at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education until June 11. This exhibit documents not only the plight of the Rohingya and how the tactics taken over time have led to the near destruction of this community, but also shows how, in spite of all that has been done to destroy them, the Rohingya continue to find a way to survive and persevere regardless of the ground beneath their feet.

Jim Peck, M.D. is Adjunct Professor of Surgery at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) for the Divisions of Vascular Surgery. He was a private practitioner in Portland since 1981. He has been on 17 humanitarian missions. He has worked for Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) in Liberia, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and South Sudan. In the January & February of 2017 and May & June 2018 Jim was at Mother of Mercy Hospital in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. He will return to Sudan in October 2019 until December. He was in Bangladesh for the Rohingya refugee in January and February of 2018 and 2019 with Medical Teams International.

Anis Zaman was born and raised in Bangladesh. He has worked with the United Nations in Liberia as a peacekeeper and observer. He has also worked as a peacekeeping trainer in Indonesia. Anis is currently working on his masters in Conflict Resolution at PSU. As part of his masters, his thesis is on ‘The Rise of Religious Nationalism in Myanmar’. Anis is the co-founder of the Bangladesh Student Association (BSA) in PSU and is involved with volunteer and leadership programs in Portland.

David Ewald was a founding partner of the product design studio, Uncorked. David helped the formation of Safecast, a non-profit focused on radiation & air-quality monitoring started after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake. He teaches, both as an adjunct professor at the University of Oregon, and as a lecturer for other institutions such as ArtCenter, Portland State University, Oregon State University, and Pacific Northwest College of Art. David is an accomplished photographer who blends his love of storytelling and social impact, most recently in shaping a photography storytelling project alongside the Rohingya community.

Sponsored by: Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Never Again Coalition, PSU’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Medical Teams International

Why have good people and their governments repeatedly ignored mass murder and genocide? Most people will make an effort to help individuals in need but often become numbly indifferent when the victims are part of a large group seeking help. Why does this occur? How can insights from psychological research provide useful guidance to address this problem? Professor Paul Slovic examines these important questions in this talk.

This event is free and open to the public. Register HERE.

Paul Slovic is a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon and a founder and President of Decision Research. He holds a B.A. from Stanford University (1959) and an M.A (1962) and Ph.D. (1964) from the University of Michigan. He studies human judgment, decision making, and the psychology of risk. With colleagues worldwide, he has developed methods to describe risk perceptions and measure their impacts on individuals and society. His most recent work examines "psychic numbing" and the failure to respond to mass human tragedies.

He is a past President of the Society for Risk Analysis and in 1991 received its Distinguished Contribution Award. In 1993 he received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award from the American Psychological Association. In 1995 he received the Outstanding Contribution to Science Award from the Oregon Academy of Science. He has received honorary doctorates from the Stockholm School of Economics (1996) and the University of East Anglia (2005). He was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2015 and to the National Academy of Sciences in 2016.

Join us for two short documentaries about Rohingya women and children from Burma followed by a conversation with the filmmakers from both films.  

Mother, Daughter, Sister is a half-hour documentary about ethnic minority women affected by rape as a weapon of war in Myanmar. Told through the eyes of four Rohingya and Kachin survivors, the film shows the brutality of the Myanmar military, the resiliency of survivors and their quest for justice and accountability. 

We Are Blood is a ten minute film that follows a kindergarten teacher as she finds grace in the smiles and play of Rohingya children and dignity in the eyes of their mothers inside Bangladesh's refugee camps where a culture faces the possibility of extinction.

Both filmmakers will be present for a post screening conversation.

The event is being held in conjunction with photographer Greg Constantine’s exhibit Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya, on display at OJMCHE April 16 to May 26.

This event is co-sponsored by PSU's Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education and the Never Again Coalition.

Free with museum admission. For more information visit OJMCHE’s event page or email us at neveragaincoalition@gmail.com

Dr. Gwen Mitchell and Aerlyn Pfeil discuss their experiences working with Rohingya women and the impact of sexual violence in conflict environments. The conversation will examine obstacles Rohingya women and girls face in seeking justice, accountability, and protection given their current status as stateless people. They will also go into the impacts that these experiences will have for generations to come and the positive role Rohingya women have as providers of support, hope, healing and resilience within their communities. 

Aerlyn Pfeil is a certified professional midwife and sexual violence program consultant from Portland, Oregon. She has been practicing midwifery since 1999 and joined MSF in 2011. She has worked in maternal health programs in South Sudan, Haiti, Senegal, the Somali region of Ethiopia, and Papua New Guinea. Aerlyn has been an active association member since joining MSF and was recently elected to the board. She holds a BA in sociology from Whitman College and a BS in midwifery and a degree in global health from the University of Manchester.

Dr. Gwen Vogel Mitchell is an Assistant Professor and Field Placement Director for the International Disaster Psychology M.A. program at the University of Denver. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in the State of Colorado where she also maintains a private practice. Dr. Mitchell has worked for many years as a trainer, consultant, and program developer for humanitarian organizations including Medecins Sans Frontiers, the Center for Victims of Torture and the Open Society Foundation in various locations including Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Jordan, Myanmar, Thailand and Bosnia. She also provided support for a global evaluation of UNHCR's mental health and psychosocial support for humanitarian staff and was a member of a UNICEF technical work group focused on child protection inside Myanmar. She played a part in the development of a mental health policy for the country of Liberia and has developed programming for marginalized groups including People Living with HIV/AIDS, LGBTQ communities, former political prisoners and torture survivors. 

Sponsors include the Oregon Historical Society, Never Again Coalition, World Oregon, Americans for Rohingya, Friends of Rohingya USA, Muslim Educational Trust, KBOO, Medecins Sans Frontiere, The Immigrant Story, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland State University’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Lewis and Clark Law School’s Crime Victims’ Rights Alliance, American Jewish World Service, and RAIN International. With support form Eric and Alia Breon.

The Rohingya face unique challenges in seeking justice and accountability for the crimes committed against them. This panel includes investigators of two, separate fact-finding missions to investigate atrocities against the Rohingya in Myanmar. Kyle Wood was part of a human rights law group contracted with the U.S. State Department (which created this report) and Al Borrelli was part of the UN fact-finding mission on Myanmar. This program is presented as part of Exiled to Nowhere: A Symposium on the Rohingya Crisis.

Kyle Wood is an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Justice Division of the Washington State Attorney General's Office. His practice focuses on initiating and supporting efforts to end human trafficking in Washington. Mr. Wood is also an international lawyer with deep experience investigating and prosecuting mass atrocities. In April 2018, Mr. Wood interviewed dozens of ethnic Rohingya men and women living in refugee camps in Bangladesh, as part of a U.S. State Department investigation into allegations of mass atrocities committed against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. The results of that investigation, compiled by the Public International Law & Policy Group, a global pro bono law firm, can be found at https://www.publicinternationallawandpolicygroup.org/rohingya-report. From 2005 until 2015, Mr. Wood worked as a trial and appellate lawyer in the Office of the Prosecutor at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), based in The Hague, Netherlands. Mr. Wood litigated more than a dozen trials and appeals in cases involving charges of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, or grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

Allen Borrelli is a former U.S. Army military intelligence analyst who then spent 15 years working at the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for the prosecution as a military intelligence analyst before moving to Mexico in order to consult internationally on issues of atrocity crimes. He most recently worked for the UN as a military expert/advisor on the fact-finding mission established by a Security Council Resolution to investigate the ongoing events and allegations stemming from the situation in Myanmar. He specializes in investigation, analysis, and consulting on issues of command and control, command responsibility, and the de jure and de facto structures of military, civilian and political institutions alleged to have been involved in violations of international or local laws. He has lectured and trained individuals and government institutions around the world on investigating leadership-level cases; evidence collection and assessment; command and control in a war crimes context, and intelligence analysis. Additionally, he has been accepted as an expert military analyst in both U.S. and international courts. As a part of his work, he has been directly involved in the investigating and/or prosecuting of seven different heads of states, from five countries, on four continents.

Sponsors for the event include the Oregon Historical Society, Never Again Coalition, World Oregon, Americans for Rohingya, Friends of Rohingya USA, Muslim Educational Trust, KBOO, The Immigrant Story, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland State University’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Lewis and Clark Law School’s Crime Victims’ Rights Alliance, American Jewish World Service, and RAIN International. With support form Eric and Alia Breon.

The Rohingya crisis is ongoing, but few are aware of it beyond brief and disconnected news headlines. To give background and context to this crisis, panelists, including former Burma MP Shwe Maung, Yusuf Iqbal of Americans for Rohingya, Reza Uddin of Friends of Rohingya USA, and photographer Greg Constantine, discuss Burma’s carefully planned genocide of the Rohingya as well as the current situation for Rohingya living within and outside Burma. This program is presented as part of Exiled to Nowhere: A Symposium on the Rohingya Crisis.

Yusuf Iqbal was born in Loilem Shan State, Burma, in 1974. He attended IIUM Malaysia and graduated with a Bachelor of Management Information Systems. During his time at IIUM, he participated in various student activities and gained awareness in Malaysia about the Rohingya persecution in Burma. After graduation, Yusuf founded a successful tour business. In 2005, Yusuf came to the United States and settled in Portland. In 2010, he founded America West Trading LLC. Today, America West Trading LLC is successful with two grocery markets, Mingala International Market, and a restaurant, Mandhi House. Yusuf is not only a businessman but also an active community organizer and activist for human rights in Burma, focusing on Muslim and Rohingya issues. He is also a founder and a principal of an Islamic weekend school where more than 70 students have been learning about Islam and Quran for 7 years. Yusuf is the founder of the nonprofit America for Rohingya.

Documentary photographer Greg Constantine has spent 13 years documenting the ongoing abuses against the Rohingya. His work and the exhibition, Exiled To Nowhere: Burma's Rohingya have been shown in over 25 cities around the world. The exhibition documents not only the plight of the Rohingya, and how the tactics taken over time have led to the near destruction of this community, but also how, in spite of all that has been done to destroy them, the Rohingya continue to find a way to survive and persevere regardless of the ground beneath their feet.

Shwe Maung was born in 1965 in Burma. He's a former Member of Parliament in Myanmar (Burma), founder and president of AiPAD (Arakan Institute for Peace and Development) and RNDC (Rohingya National Development Council), as well as a board member of APHR (ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights) (www.aseanmp.org) and founding member of IPPFoRB (International Panel of Parliamentarians for Freedom of Religion or Belief (www.ippforb.com). He has engaged with members of U.S. Congress, former U.S. presidents, and U.N. officials on a variety of issues related to the discrimination and persecution of the Rohingya by the Myanmar (Burma) government. He currently resides in Texas.

Reza Uddin is a Rohingya Muslim born and raised in Maungdaw, Rakhine State, Burma. His immediate family still lives in Maungdaw. Reza was educated at the University of Rangoon, Burma, where he earned a degree in Physics. After coming to the United States, he graduated from Portland State University in 1998. Professionally, he was trained as an analytical chemist for EPA method and worked twelve years for an environmental science company. Reza is the first Rohingya to settle in Oregon. Since then, he has sponsored other Rohingya families settle in Portland. Today, there are more than one hundred Rohingya families settled in Southeast Portland. Reza was president of the American Burmese Association of Oregon from 1996 to 2000 and has volunteered with various groups to help Burmese refugees regardless of their ethnic and religious background. He is the president and founder of Friends of Rohingya USA, a nonprofit that works on humanitarian relief in Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh as well as in internally displaced camps for Rohingya inside Burma. He has recently made two trips to a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Sponsors for the event include the Oregon Historical Society, Never Again Coalition, World Oregon, Americans for Rohingya, Friends of Rohingya USA, Muslim Educational Trust, KBOO, The Immigrant Story, Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education, Portland State University’s Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Lewis and Clark Law School’s Crime Victims’ Rights Alliance, American Jewish World Service, and RAIN International. With support form Eric and Alia Breon.