Organized in observance of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust in cooperation with The Holocaust and The United Nations Outreach Programme
4 February 2021
11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. EST
Programme
Information Officer, The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme, Education Outreach Section, Department of Global Communications (DGC)
Tracey Petersen manages the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme in the Education Outreach Section of the Department for Global Communications. The Programme is mandated by the United Nations General Assembly to mobilize civil society globally for Holocaust remembrance and education in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide. Prior to joining the United Nations, Tracey was the Education Director of the Cape Town Holocaust Centre, South Africa and led the development and implementation of teacher training and public engagement projects tailored to engage with citizens in the context of a country still emerging from a deeply damaged past. She has taught in both secondary and tertiary levels. She holds a PhD in history from the University of the Western Cape, and an MPhil in education from the University of Cape Town and is a fellow of the Salzburg Global Seminars.
Chief, Civil Society Unit, Outreach Division, Department of Global Communications
Ms. Hawa Diallo, Chief of the Civil Society Unit at the Civil Society and Advocacy Section, UN Department of Global Communications has extensive United Nations experience in public information outreach and fostering civil society partnerships, with a particular emphasis on youth and women’s organizations. Ms. Diallo began her United Nations career in 1987 in the Department of Public Information and has served in two United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Cambodia and Somalia, respectively. She has also worked for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN Habitat) in Nairobi, as an Associate Human Settlements Officer and as a Partners and Youth Officer.
Holocaust Scholar
Dr. Beth B. Cohen received her PhD in Holocaust history from Clark University and her Master’s Degree in Human Development from Harvard. Her book, Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in Postwar America analyzes the US reception of adult survivors. Cohen’s most recent work, Child Survivors of the Holocaust: The Youngest Remnant and the American Experience investigates the complex, particular identity of this group. She has contributed to numerous collections including Kanigisser-Cohen and Ofer’s Starting Anew: The Rehabilitation of Child Survivors of the Holocaust in the Early Postwar Years, Fogelman, Kangisser-Cohen, and Ofer’s, Children in the Holocaust and its Aftermath and others. Cohen is a lecturer at California State University, Northridge.
Director, Research Program on Children and Global Adversity, Boston College School of Social Work
Professor Theresa S. Betancourt is the inaugural Salem Professor in Global Practice at the Boston College School of Social Work and Director of the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA). She is Principal Investigator of an intergenerational study of war/prospective longitudinal study of war-affected youth in Sierra Leone, which led to the development of the Youth Readiness Intervention (YRI) for war-affected youth. In addition to reintegrating child soldiers in Sierra Leone, the work of RPCA also addresses early child development and violence prevention with the development, testing, and implementation of the Family Strengthening Intervention (FSI) in Rwanda and with Somali and Bhutanese refugee families in the United States.
Founder, Children for Peace
Ms. Divina Maloum is a young activist and founder of Children for Peace, a girl-led movement working in Cameroon and other African countries. The organization teaches over 5,000 children a year about violent extremism and building lasting peace. In 2019, at the age of 14, Ms. Maloum won the International Children’s Peace Prize (together with Greta Thunberg) for her peaceful fight against extremist violence and radicalization. In 2020 she was the youngest laureate of the 35.35 Africa Award which recognises the exceptional contribution of 35 African young personalities under 35 years. She was one of the youth speakers that delivered a speech at the 2020 observance of the United Nations International Day of Peace.
Poet
Ms. Amineh Abou Kerech is the winner of Betjeman Poetry Prize in 2017. Born in Syria and taking refuge in the United Kingdom, Ms. Kerech won the prestigious national poetry prize for her poem Lament for Syria. The vivid poem, written half in English and half in Arabic, remembers the country she loved as a young child.