Global Friday Presents
Co-sponsored with Canadian International Council (CIC) Prince George
Dr. W. Andy Knight
Professor, Political Science Department
University of Alberta

ABSTRACT: The policy debate on what to do about the crimes against humanity committed in Myanmar is fraught with obstacles and pitfalls. Canada’s special envoy for Myanmar, Bob Rae, helped build support for the genocide prosecution filed by Gambia with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against the Myanmar government for its systematic atrocity crimes which forced the expulsion of over 700,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. The goal of the Canadian government is clear: impunity for those who commit the most egregious crimes against humanity should not be tolerated and perpetrators should be held to account so that justice for the victims and survivors is served. I argue that the international community has other tools in its arsenal beside judicial remedies to deal with the perpetrators of crimes against humanity. Apart from the tools available in Chapter Six of the UN Charter, perhaps a peace and reconciliation process ought to be tried as a means of building a peace that is truly sustainable. But there can be no true justice in Myanmar until the perpetrators of crimes against humanity are held to account.

SPEAKER'S BIO:  W. Andy Knight is Professor of International Relations in the Political Science Department at the University of Alberta and past Chair of the Department. He is former Director of the Institute of International Relations, The University of the West Indies, Trinidad & Tobago. Knight is co-editor in Chief of African Security journal, former co-editor of Global Governance journal, and a past Governor of the International Development Research Centre (IDRC). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (FRSC), Knight’s most recent books include the award winning, Female Suicide Bombings: A Critical Gendered Approach, with Tanya Narozhna (University of Toronto Press), Global Politics, with Tom Keating (Oxford University Press), and  Routledge Handbook of the Responsibility to Protect, with Frazer Egerton (Routledge). His recent book chapters and journal publications address a wide range of topical issues, including Summative Global Governance, Reform of the UN system, the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), Global health security, Piracy in the Horn of Africa, countering homegrown terrorism, and the manifold vulnerabilities faced by small states. Knight is completing two SSHRC funded projects on “The Evolution of the Khalistan Movement in Canada and India” and “Failure to Detonate: Gender and Inchoate Suicide Missions.” He was recently awarded a Worldwide Universities Network grant for a research project on the “Norms, Standards, and Enforcement of the COVID-19 International Certificate of Vaccination”.

Online via Zoom:  https://ca01web.zoom.us/j/62782652332  Passcode:  266688

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