Change Agents 5/6/21 What happens after genocide: Rwanda and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Producer/Host: Steve Wessler

-Can the surviving victims of genocide and the aggressors work together?
-Is there hope that the two sides can reach peace?

Guests:
Felix Hageniamana, Immigration lawyer in Portland ME. Felix is an attorney whose law firm Hagenimana Law specializes in immigration law. Felix has previously worked as a linguist, translator, and consultant for the BBC and a student attorney in the Refugee and Human Rights Clinic. A graduate of the University of Maine Law School, Felix works as an Asylum Outreach Attorney at the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project (ILAP) in addition to managing his own law firm.

Azur Imširovic, consultant on human rights issues in Bosnia Herzegovina and in other countries Holds a BA in English and French studies from the University of Zagreb, Croatia and a MA in Comparative Politics from the University of York, United Kingdom. He has worked for more than fifteen years in the fields of human rights, democratization, security stabilization, judicial reform and elections in international organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and North Macedonia. Currently Azur works as an independent analyst and contributor specializing in post conflict political development and human rights issues in the Western Balkans.

About the host:
Steve Wessler will soon will be starting his 28th year of working on human right issues. He founded the Civil Rights Unit in the Maine Attorney’s Office in 1992 and led the Unit for 7 years. In 1999 he left the formal practice of law and founded the Center for the Prevention of Hate. The Center worked in Maine and across the USA. He and his colleagues worked to reduce bias and harassment in schools, in communities, in health care organization through workshops and conflict resolution. The Center closed in 2011 and Steve began a consulting on human rights issues. For the next 5 years much of his work was in Europe, developing and implementing training curricular for police, working in communities to reduce the risk of hate crimes, conflict resolution between police and youth. He has worked in over 20 countries. In late 2016 he began to work more in Maine, with a focus on reducing anti-immigrant bias. He continues to work in schools to reduce bias and harassment. Wessler teaches courses on human rights issues at the College of the Atlantic, the University of Maine at Augusta and at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University in northern Virginia.