When Aegis’ founders opened the UK’s National Holocaust Centre in 1995, it was intended to be a warning from history. Yet even while it was preparing to open, genocide was carried out against the Tutsis in Rwanda. And Rwanda was not the only country experiencing mass atrocities. Following genocide against Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica in 1995 it was clear by 1999 that ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was a predictable catastrophe. Aside from the needless human cost in Kosovo, the world spent $40 billion responding to that crisis and rebuilding.

It begged the question what could be achieved if a fraction of this resource was invested in prevention efforts. Just as with diseases, risk factors for genocide may be identified and interventions developed to prevent. That is why the Aegis Trust was founded in 2000. There have been notable successes since, and we are hugely grateful to our partner organizations, and to our growing community of committed supporters around the World, without whom so much of what is being achieved would simply not be possible. Yet there is much more to do, and that involves a collective effort on the part of all of us.