Our mission is to link NIU, its students, and faculty with the wider community of teachers, students, scholars, activists, and government officials and seek to establish education as the foundation for addressing issues that plague individuals and societies. By putting education to use in the pursuit of developing programs that play a role in ending violence we humbly hope to contribute to an end to such violence. Sadly, genocide and human rights violations continue to this very day and the more advanced world society becomes the more violence we seem to be experiencing, challenging our notions of “progress”. The Institute's mission is an essential component in the full spectrum of efforts to create a society where gross violations of life and rights are no longer permitted.
In 2005 the Illinois Legislature passed a new mandate for instruction that incorporated genocide into the state-wide Social Studies curriculum. This law listed several specific examples of gencoides throughout history but did not exclude any others from being integrated. But the law also left the determination of the curriculum up to the individual districts and thus created a need for sustained academic training on the topic. Read the full text at Public Act 094-0478 as passed in 2005.