Canadian Human Rights Activist Calls Out Russian Atrocities in Ukraine
"to stop this illegal war"
Clad in body armor in a van racing along a Ukrainian highway from Warsaw to Kyiv, doling out carrots to his security team, the international businessman could be forgiven for thinking he was in a surreal dream.
But for Jay Rosenzweig, this important fact-finding mission as Chair of the Board of Canadian-based Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights was just another leg in his journey to change the world for the better, beyond his day job running a global executive recruitment and talent strategy firm headquartered in Toronto.
“One of the things from my childhood Jewish studies that has always stayed with me is a Hebrew admonition that translates to: ‘Justice, justice shall you pursue,’” said Rosenzweig. “The repetition of the word justice really drove home for me the deep importance of my obligation to pursue justice for all.”
Like most of the rest of the world, Rosenzweig has watched from afar as the Russian Federation commits a litany of war crimes in its illegal assault on Ukraine. When presented with an opportunity to visit Ukraine and meet with members of Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy leadership team, he jumped at it.
“It was a unique opportunity to bear witness to and document Russia’s war crimes, to understand what the Ukrainian people are facing, build relationships, and find out how the Raoul Wallenberg Centre might help.
Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, businessman and diplomat who saved 10’s of thousands of Jews in German-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust as Sweden's special envoy in Budapest. He issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory from German Nazis and Hungarian fascists during the later stages of World War II. But the price was high for this hero of humanity. Wallenberg was sent to a Soviet Gulag on January 17, 1945 and never heard from again.
Although Rosenzweig’s mission is justice for all, the Ukrainian visit became even more personal when the small entourage he was travelling with stopped outside Kyiv at Babyn Yar, the site of a massacre of 33,000 Jews during the Holocaust. The monument to those murdered civilians had been recently damaged in a Russian missile strike.
“The United Nations’ Genocide Convention was supposed to be the ‘Never Again Convention,’ but we have tragically seen it violated time and again, this time by Russia,” Rosenzweig said. "Russia is inciting genocide in the Russian mass media, carrying out the forced transfer of children and targeting and killing Ukrainian civilians.”
The Genocide Convention, adopted by the UN General Assembly after the Nazi regime was defeated, not only defines crimes against humanity, but establishes the obligation of all countries around the world to take measures “to prevent and to punish the crime of genocide.”
“It is the duty of all the nations of the world to band together to prevent future genocidal acts by the Russian Federation,” Rosenzweig said. “Ensuring that the nations of the world act on Russia’s breaches of the Genocide Convention on this very soil where the Nazis committed genocidal atrocities decades ago has become an important part of our work at the Wallenberg Centre,” Rosenzweig said.
After their emotional stop at the damaged Babyn Yar Memorial, Rosenzweig and his group arrived under the cover of darkness at the Mariinskyi Palace House, Ukraine’s equivalent to the White House.
There they were met by Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, a position similar to what in the West might be called chief of staff. He briefed them on the struggle of Ukrainians for the independence and territorial integrity for their country.
Rosenzweig presented Yermak and other Ukrainian officials with the Wallenberg Centre’s commissioned independent report on Russia violations of the Genocide Convention -- An Independent Legal Analysis of the Russian Federation's Breaches of the Genocide Convention in Ukraine and the Duty to Prevent.
The legal analysis notes that in 1995, the details of the mass murder of over 7,000 Bosnian Muslim boys and men in Srebrenica only emerged before the international community when it was too late to prevent a genocide that occurred in a matter of days.
“In 2022, we have the capabilities to accurately track similar atrocities as they unfold and respond accordingly…the report conclusively establishes the existence of a serious risk of genocide, triggering the legal duty of all States to prevent genocide under Article 1 of the Genocide Convention,” says the report.
Rosenzweig also presented Yermak with a 10-point plan for the community of democracies to implement. Some of the suggestions include the international community taking action against Chinese corporations actively aiding the Russian government’s efforts in Ukraine, the invocation of jurisdictional rights by countries with Universal Jurisdiction regimes, and support for the International Mass Atrocities Advisory Group.
Spreading the Message
Soon after returning home to Toronto, Rosenzweig headed to New York to meet Ukraine’s First Lady, Olena Zelenska, who was speaking to the 77th session of the UN General Assembly. He participated in First Lady Zelenska’s unveiling of her new foundation at the Metropolitan Opera, which is raising funds for the estimated $500-billion job of rebuilding her country. The event attracted some of the biggest names in politics, business and the arts, including Denys Shmyhal, the current Prime Minister of Ukraine, James Cleverly, the UK’s Foreign Secretary, Hillary Clinton, former secretary of state and former U.S. First Lady Hillary Clinton, Matt Damon, Jimmy Fallon, Brooke Shields, and many others.
The next morning, Rosenzweig organized, along with Aaron Kaufman and Caryl Stern, Executive Director of the Walton Family Foundation, a private breakfast for Ms. Zelenska at JP Morgan. The breakfast was hosted by Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan Chase, his wife, Judith Kent, and Mary Erdoes, Chief Executive Officer of JP Morgan Asset & Wealth Management. Among those in attendance were Bob Rae, Canadian Ambassador to the United Nations, Nile Rogers the Musician, Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the ADL, and several business people and investors.
“We need the work of all of these business, political and social leaders to put more pressure on Russia to stop its illegal war,” he said. “We have to keep the pressure on.”
In Support of Ukraine, the Work Continues
Irwin Cotler, founder and International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre, who has been a mentor to Rosenzweig from the time he was his law professor at McGill, met recently with ministers and policy makers in Canada’s capital, advocating for the release of Russian dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza. Kara-Murza has been charged with treason by Putin including for speaking out in support of the Ukrainian people. Cotler was accompanied by Kara-Murza’s wife, Evgenia, and Bill Browder, well known for having successfully lobbied the past number of years for Magnitsky Act sanctions against Putin and Russia’s architects of repression. Following these meetings, the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, announced the implementation of Magnitsky sanctions against those responsible for the unjust imprisonment of Vladimir Kara-Murza.
“Justice, Just Shall You Pursue”
The work to help Ukraine is only the latest philanthropic and social advocacy endeavors by Rosenzweig in pursuit of justice.
He has been a stalwart leader in the fight against gender inequity. His annual Rosenzweig Report has been an instrumental tool in highlighting problems and offering solutions that allow women and their allies to push for change when it comes to leadership opportunities in business, politics, philanthropy, arts and beyond.
“One does not need to look much further than the First Lady of Ukraine as a shining example of leadership and composure as a leader in the film business even before entering into the political realm, and of course now, under the most challenging of circumstances. I was surrounded by many other incredible leaders on my brief trip to NYC, leaders in business, arts and philanthropy, including Hillary Clinton and Caryl Stern, Mary Erdoes of JP Morgan. The business case, not to mention the moral imperative is clear. We need more women in leadership roles, period,” says Rosenzweig.
About Those Carrots
“I took a lot of teasing, especially from the security team, about bringing bags of carrots and apples with me for the drive from Warsaw to Kyiv,” said Rosenzweig. “But about four hours into that 12-plus hour drive we were all munching away. It’s a small thing but I’m going to find a way to help however I can wherever I am.”