Personal Introduction

Hello everyone. Before I get started on writing my first entry to this blog, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Christopher Tuckwood and I am in my fourth year at the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. Here I am majoring in Medieval Studies with a minor in Jewish Studies. Genocide prevention is something which I’ve been interested in for quite a long time now and I have been active in doing Darfur advocacy for three years now, since I organized my first fundraiser in early 2004. Since then, I have founded a chapter of Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) Canada on my campus, and also founded and acted as president of the Genocide Action Group at my university, which has over two hundred members. We have been quite active in raising both money and awareness by hosting film showings, guest speakers, conferences, and getting as much attention as possible in our local media, which is the best tool for raising awareness.

Now, I am a proud member of the USHMM Student Genocide Prevention Board (also the sole Canadian member) and will be regularly contributing to this blog. The topics on which I will be writing are varied, but I will mostly be focusing on Darfur and Bosnia, while also contributing to any discussion on the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and other relevant international law. Rwanda is another particular area of interest and “expertise” of mine.

Genocide is the greatest of all evils which human beings commit against each other. It is not a strictly past historical phenomenon, it is not something limited to one part of the world, and it is not something which can be easily ended, particularly due to the apathy of the international community and powerful governments. As Samantha Power has stated, we live in the “Age of Genocide” and the movement to end and prevent it is the premier moral imperative of our time. Ultimately, saving real lives is our first goal. Just trying is never enough and we must constantly seek out the most effective ways to actually accomplish real solutions. Even if success is often elusive or not achieved in the short-term, our efforts do have significance. Those who struggle against the perpetrators of genocide can at least stand up and be counted as refusing to remain silent - as so many others have - in the face of this ultimate evil.