How To: Organize Your Bookstore or Library

We have created a partnership with the American Booksellers Association to encourage participation by bookstores in Genocide Prevention Month. (The ABA is the trade association for independent bookstores – learn more about them and find member booksellers here.)

As part of this partnership, the ABA has encouraged members to to create an educational table of books about genocide using GPM and the ABA's list of notable books about genocide: "Books of Conscience." Doesn't include your favorite? More books are listed here, and you can contact us with any further suggestions.

Help us by asking your bookseller to participate!

1. Print GPM's tabletop card on an 8 x 11 sheet of white paper or card stock
2. Frame it, tape it to a frame, or tape it to the front of a folder
   OR--Contact us and we'll send you a free organizing kit, including how to guides, the Books of Conscience list, and a sign as seen on the "Books of Conscience" table below
3. Take the sign and the "Books of Conscience" list to your local bookstore, library, school library, university library, Barnes and Noble, or Borders
4. Ask the store or library to adopt Genocide Prevention Month for April by setting up a display table of bestselling books about genocide

A display table can highlight "Books of Conscience" and other books about genocide.

Click here to find an ABA Bookseller near you. To purchase "Books of Conscience", click on the titles in the .pdf document above or visit www.indiebound.org.

Want to do more? Ask the book store or library to stage an event with you. We recommend:

Ceremonies. To commemorate Genocide Prevention Month, invite local genocide survivors to read from works about genocide and ask for a moment of silence for the people of Darfur and other places where there are mass atrocity crimes.

Panels. Invite local Darfur experts and/or other survivors to talk about genocide. Invite a local professor to talk about a particular book or genocide.

Readings. Ask prominent people in the community to read passages from books about genocide.

Read our organizing guides for step-by-step instructions on how to plan and execute your event. Don't forget to add your event to our calendar so we can alert anti-genocide activists in your area to attend.

30 Things You Can Do During Genocide Prevention Month

There are many ways to participate in Genocide Prevention Month – from sending an email or watching a movie to organizing a commemoration event or film series in April.

Join the movement and show your support for genocide prevention by taking an action every day in April. Here are 30 ways to get involved. We welcome your ideas: contact us with your suggestions for more ways to take action in April.

1. Join our Books Campaign and ask your local bookseller to display books about genocide and mass atrocities
2. Support humanitarian organizations working in Darfur and Eastern Chad – they are the lifeline of support for millions of civilians
3. Read the recommendations of the Genocide Prevention Task Force, co-chaired by Madeleine Albright and William Cohen, which set out a blueprint for US policymakers on genocide and mass atrocity prevention
4. Ask your friends and family to observe Genocide Prevention Month
5. Watch The Killing Fields, a movie about the Cambodian genocide (or organize a screening at a school, house of worship or library)
6. April 6 marks the anniversary of the siege of Sarajevo. Commemorate the Bosnian genocide and llearn about the massacre at Srebrenica by “visiting“ the Memorial Center Srebrenica-Potočari
7. Genocide in Rwanda began on April 7, 1994. Commemorate those lost in Rwanda by “visiting” the Kigali Memorial Centre
8. Print copies of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and give to friends
9. Follow Genocide Prevention Project on twitter
10. Invite people to your house to watch and discuss of a movie about genocide using our list of movies
11. Watch 20 Voices – stories of survivors of the Armenian Genocide
12. Encourage your school to adopt anti-genocide curricular materials. Facing History, And Ourselves has a range of resources
13. Watch Schindler’s List, a movie about the Holocaust (or organize a screening at a school, house of worship or library)
    
14. Learn how the global community can prevent genocide by reading our report: More than an Ounce Required
15. Watch Sometimes in April, a film about the Rwandan genocide
16. Learn more about the situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo from the Enough Project
17. On April 17, 1975, the Khmer Rouge entered Phnom Penh. Commemorate the Cambodian genocide by "visiting" Tuol Sleng, the Khmer Rouge’s torture center
18. Order a green wristband to show your support for action on Darfur
19. Learn about what’s happening in Somalia from Human Rights Watch
20. Read The Cellist of Sarajevo, a novel about ethnic cleansing in Bosnia
21. Learn about how Yad Vashem, the Holocaust museum in Israel commemorates Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day, April 21
    
22. Set up an information table at a local school or library
23. Learn about mass atrocities in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq from the International Crisis Group
24. Commemorate the Armenian genocide on April 24 by “visiting” Tsisernakaberd, Armenia’s Genocide Museum
25. Donate your Facebook status to Genocide Prevention Month
26. Join a community of advocates advocating a style of diplomacy championed by the late peace-maker Sergio Vieira de Mello
27. Do you know what is happening in Burma? Join the 1 Million Voices for Burma campaign
28. Watch The Devil Came on Horseback, a documentary about the Darfur genocide
29. Look at the history of genocide in photos "Never Again, Again, Again…"
30. Join an effort to require states to institute mandatory genocide curricular materials in middle schools and high schools by visiting Teach Against Genocide

In April, Six Sorrowful Reminders of the Consequences of Hatred, Racism, Intolerance and Ignorance

This April survivors of genocide and mass atrocities from Darfur, Rwanda, Bosnia, Cambodia, the Holocaust, and Armenia are uniting with each other and advocates to observe Genocide Prevention Month.

In a statement to announce the month, more than 50 organizations from over 10 countries called on powerful nations of the world to make genocide prevention a national and international priority and to implement policies to avert the systematic mass killing of civilians, and to take immediate action on the worsening situation in Darfur.

Why April? Remarkably, six genocides have major anniversaries in the month of April – a tragic testament to the international community's inexcusable failure to stop inhuman and barbarous acts.

Find out how to get involved, take action and learn more at www.GenocidePreventionMonth.org and join Genocide Prevention Month on Facebook.

Events in observation of the Genocide Prevention Month will be worldwide. A preview of "That Last Survivor" -- a documentary that explores the idea of genocide in the 21st century as a platform for social action -- will premiere online April 2. The film follows the lives of Survivors of four genocides and mass atrocities -- The Holocaust, Rwanda, Darfur, and Congo.


The Last Survivor extended trailer from The Last Survivor on Vimeo.