Aegis Trust

The Aegis Trust was established in 2000 to campaign "to prevent genocide worldwide". It is a spinoff of the The Holocaust Centre (at Beth Shalom -- UK). It provides research and advocacy support to the All Party Parliamentary Groups on the Prevention of Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity in the UK and Canada. It works in partnership with several governmental or quasi-governmental bodies dealing with Holocaust education or genocide. From its "About Us" description:
 * Today, the Aegis Trust works with a wide range of partners, including governmental, non-governmental, educational and academic institutions around the world. Aegis works closely with several UK government departments on Holocaust and genocide issues. It plays a leading role in the Intergovernmental Task Force for Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research established by Bill Clinton, Goran Persson and Tony Blair in 1998. As special advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister's Office on genocide issues, Aegis Director Stephen Smith has been involved in the organisation of the Stockholm International Forum since the start.

Aegis Trust is a lobbying group seeking to avert genocide, and acts on several levels. Its activities include visiting and establishing relationships with other groups that have been subjected to genocide, Rwanda in particular. Its main activities since 2005 have been to push for action on Darfur where it claims a genocide is on-going. It placed an ad in the 20 Oct 2006 IHT seeking EU action on Darfur. Unfortunately, the Aegis Trust principals don't have much to say about the scale of the carnage in Iraq, or the recent Israeli attacks against Lebanon or Gaza. In essence, Aegis Trust is part of a pro-Israel inspired campaign to focus on the crimes in Darfur and even to seek a "Sudan divestment". However, the intent of this campaign has all to do with diverting the focus away from the U.S. or Israeli depredations, and to undermine calls for a divestment from Israel in the United States.

And a spot of exaggeration
Julian Borger wrote:
 * Earlier this month [August], Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that two activist pressure groups, the Save Darfur Coalition and the Aegis Trust, lacked solid proof for their claim in an advertising campaign that 400,000 "innocent men, women and children" had been killed in Darfur. The ASA concluded that "there was a division of informed opinion about the accuracy of the figure contained in the ad and it should not have been presented in such a definitive way". &hellip; Nevertheless, the Save Darfur Coalition and the Aegis Trust were forced to retreat over the figures. They admit there is no definitive proof for the 400,000 claim, but still believe it reflects reality.

The ASA report is available online.

Staff
Accessed May 2010:


 * James Smith - Chief Executive Officer
 * Manju Prince - PA to the Chief Executive
 * Stephen Twigg - Director of Special Projects
 * Nick Donovan - Head of Policy, Research and Campaigns
 * Melissa Pack - Senior Counsel - International Justice Programme
 * Alain Werner - Senior Counsel - International Justice Programme
 * Anna Macdonald - Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer
 * Sheila Velez - Trial Monitor, Lubanga Chronicles Project
 * David Brown - Head of Media and Communications
 * Ben Walker - Development Co-ordinator

Patrons
Accessed May 2010:

Founding Patrons

 * The Pears Family

Chair of Trustees

 * Stephen D. Smith

Patrons

 * Romeo Dallaire
 * Bob Geldof
 * Richard Goldstone
 * Clare Short
 * Marcus Storch
 * Desmond Tutu
 * Elie Wiesel

Academic Advisors
Accessed May 2010:
 * Yehuda Bauer
 * Frank Chalk
 * Helen Fein
 * Carol Rittner
 * John Roth
 * Hugo Slim
 * Jonathan Webber

Affiliations

 * Kigali Memorial Centre in Rwanda (with Kigali City Council) – co-established by the Aegis Trust
 * Protect Darfur -- website created by Aegis Trust
 * Wanted for War Crimes a Aegis project designed to bring suspected war criminals to justice

Contact

 * Website: www.aegistrust.org
 * Campaign Website www.protectdarfur.org

Related Sourcewatch

 * Global Day for Darfur
 * Crisis Action
 * International Campaign to End Genocide