The All-Party Parliamentary Group for the Prevention of Genocide and other Crimes Against Humanity (the Genocide Prevention Group) is an informal group of Parliamentarians composed of members from all parties in the

House of Commons of Canada The House of Commons of Canada () is the lower house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the Senate of Canada, they comprise the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of Ca ...

and the

Senate of Canada The Senate of Canada () is the upper house of the Parliament of Canada. Together with the Monarchy of Canada#Parliament (King-in-Parliament), Crown and the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons, they compose the Bicameralism, bicameral le ...

with an interest in the prevention of

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

and similar

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are certain serious crimes committed as part of a large-scale attack against civilians. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity can be committed during both peace and war and against a state's own nationals as well as ...

Origins

The group was founded in 2006 by a group of parliamentarians with Senator

Roméo Dallaire Roméo Antonius Dallaire (born June 25, 1946) is a retired Canadian politician and military officer who was a senator from Quebec from 2005 to 2014, and a lieutenant-general in the Canadian Armed Forces. He notably was the force commander of U ...

as its founder. It was inspired by the success of a similar parliamentary group in the United Kingdom and grew out of the Save Darfur Coalition initiated in 2006.

Mandate

The mandate of the Genocide Prevention Group is to: #Ensure that the government of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

galvanizes to prevent and protect civilian populations from genocide, crimes against humanity, and the incitement to such crimes in accordance with the principles of "The

Responsibility to Protect The responsibility to protect (R2P or RtoP) is a global political commitment which was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly at the 2005 World Summit in order to address its four key concerns to prevent genocide, war crimes, ethnic cle ...

(R2P)" #Increase the flow of information and analysis to parliamentarians about genocide and other crimes against humanity; #Promote understanding of the importance of long-term approaches to genocide prevention; and #Engage in communication and collaboration with like-minded bodies in

civil society Civil society can be understood as the "third sector" of society, distinct from government and business, and including the family and the private sphere.United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Special Advisor for the Prevention of Genocide, the

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...

, and other organizations working in the field of Genocide prevention and post conflict justice; and ::*create international channels for the timely exchange of information regarding emerging crises that have a potentially genocidal component.

Members

Membership in the Genocide Prevention Group is open to all Parliamentarians. There are currently about twenty official members of the Genocide Prevention Group, with some sixty parliamentarians who participate in events hosted by the Genocide Prevention Group.

Executive

The Executive is composed of a Chair, three Vice-Chairs, one from each of the parties represented at Parliament, and an ''ex officio'' member. The Group is currently chaired by Member of Parliament

Ali Ehsassi Ali Cyrus Ehsassi (‎; born April 24, 1970) is a Swiss-born Canadian politician of Iranian descent who has served as the Liberal Member of Parliament for Willowdale since 2015. He was briefly the minister of government transformation, publ ...

and the vice-chairs are as follows:

Garnett Genuis Garnett Genuis (born January 23, 1987) is a Canadian politician who has served as the member of Parliament for the riding of Sherwood Park—Fort Saskatchewan (in Alberta) since 2015. Early life Genuis was born in 1987 and grew up in Strat ...

, MP (Conservative);

Ruby Sahota Ruby Sahota (born June 22, 1979) is a Canadian lawyer and politician. A member of the Liberal Party, she served as the Minister of Democratic Institutions from 2024 to 2025 and has represented the federal riding of Brampton North in the Hous ...

, MP (Liberal); and Cheryl Hardcastle, MP (NDP). The former chair and ''ex officio'' member is Lt.-Gen

, Senator.

Current areas of concern

The Genocide Prevention Group is currently monitoring a range of ongoing and developing situations, as well as emerging fields in genocide prevention and mass atrocity monitoring. The group has recently been involved with the W2I Project run by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies.

Funding

Due to the unofficial nature of the Genocide Prevention Group, the group does not receive Parliamentary funding. It is funded by the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies and the Genocide Prevention Group's membership fees. .{{Cite web, url=http://www.concordia.ca/content/concordia/en/research/migs.html, title=The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies (MIGS), website=www.concordia.ca, access-date=2019-10-25

References

External links

* List of member

Parliament of Canada