�糵����

Join us for a conversation alongside , the Genocide Prevention 25 art exhibit, which is still on display at the Human Rights Research and Education Centre in Fauteux Hall. This session will explore how survivor communities use art and creativity to resist erasure, preserve memory, and demand justice in the wake of genocide.

Members of the Alliance of Genocide Victim Communities, a coalition representing the Uyghur, Tutsi, Hazara, Tigrayan, Rohingya, Tamil, Yazidi, and Tibetan communities, will share their thoughts on the exhibit and the creative work being done within their alliance and global networks.

As part of the program, we will also mark September 25, which Canada’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights has recommended be recognized as the National Day of Remembrance for the Hazara Genocide. To honor this day, representatives of the Hazara community will share an update on the current situation in Afghanistan and the urgent challenges their community continues to face.

Speakers

Samphe Lhalungpa is Chair of the Canada Tibet Committee and a former UNICEF executive with more than two decades of UN service in Asia, Africa, and Central Asia. He has also worked in Canada’s federal public service and serves on cultural institutions such as the Rubin Museum of Himalayan Art. Drawing on both lived experience and a long career in international development, he brings a valuable perspective on how Tibetans have resisted erasure since their experience of genocide.

Mehmet Tohti is a prominent Uyghur Canadian human rights advocate based in Ottawa. Born in Kashgar (East Turkistan), he lived in China, where he taught biology at Kashgar University until forced to flee his homeland at age 26. In Canada, he has co-founded the World Uyghur Congress and now serves as Executive Director of the Uyghur Rights Advocacy Project, where he led the lobbying efforts that secured a House of Commons declaration calling China’s treatment of Uyghurs “genocide.” In recognition of his relentless dedication, he was recently awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal

Kidane Gebremariam is a respected leader in the Tigrayan community and a long-time human rights advocate. He is the former President of Security and Justice for Tigrayans Canada and currently serves as a member of the Tigray Canada Institute for Development, a charitable organization supporting recovery and resilience efforts in Tigray. Based in Ottawa, he has testified multiple times before Canada’s Subcommittee on International Human Rights and continues to be a key voice in shaping the public and political response to atrocity crimes.

John Jonaid is a Rohingya-born human rights journalist and advocate based in Ottawa. A refugee who fled Myanmar in 2013, he co-founded Archipelago Magazine and the Humans in Flight project to amplify refugee voices. His writing has appeared in outlets such as the BBC, CBC, Al Jazeera, and OpenCanada, where he highlights the realities of genocide, displacement, and justice.

Tahir Shaaran is a physicist and academic at the University of Toronto, originally from Afghanistan. An award-winning scholar, he earned the Carey-Foster Prize for his advanced research in strong-field and attosecond physics. He previously served as Director-General of Afghanistan’s Nuclear Energy Agency and is an active member of the Canadian Hazara Advocacy Group, where he works to amplify the voices of Hazara communities in Canada and abroad. He brings both scientific rigor and lived commitment to justice to this conversation on genocide and creative resistance.