The Isōko Centre for Humanity: Peace in Practice

In 2025, Aegis Trust committed to establishing the Isōko Centre for Humanity—a global hub advancing peace, human rights, and the prevention of genocide and atrocity crimes—in Rwanda by December 2028. The Centre will provide a bold, evidence-based platform where peace leaders can build capacity by offering  in-person and digital programming on peace education and skills development, prevention and advocacy against atrocity crimes, and healing peacebuilders to empower at least 2,600 global leaders with community reach to 260,000 individuals. This commitment addresses the escalating global risks of identity-based violence, denialism, and civic fragmentation in regions such as Central Africa, Gaza, Ukraine, Bosnia, and the United States. Aegis Trust partners will contribute to the Centre by linking early warning to early response, strengthening global prevention movements, and engaging decision-makers on prevention. The Centre will also feature a Museum of the Future to provide real-time learning and orientation for practitioners on preventing or ending mass violence worldwide.

Aegis Trust commits to establishing the Isōko Centre for Humanity in Rwanda by December 2028, a global hub for peace education, strategic advocacy, and the prevention of identity-based violence. Building on two decades of experience, Aegis brings deep institutional expertise, a team of nearly 80 professionals including many genocide survivors, and a proven track record in peacebuilding. Commissioned by the Government of Rwanda in 2003 to establish the Kigali Genocide Memorial, Aegis also developed the Peace and Values Education model now embedded in Rwanda’s national curriculum, a model with powerful potential for global application through Isōko.

At the heart of the Centre will be intensive training programs such as the flagship Changemaker Program, which brings together leaders from at-risk countries for multi-day workshops and experiential learning. Aegis will also offer peace education courses tailored for educators, policymakers, and civil society actors, supported by online content to extend global access. These programs are designed to cultivate empathy, critical thinking, and personal responsibility, while equipping participants with tools to diagnose early warning signs of violence and design scalable peace initiatives.

The Centre will house the Museum of the Future, sharing global stories of genocide, prevention, and reconciliation, and a situation room offering real-time learning and orientation for practitioners. Research and policy efforts will be led by experts in education, mediation, and media, generating practical strategies to prevent or end mass violence worldwide.

Aegis will contribute its expert staff, robust research and evaluation systems, and digital infrastructure. Partners will support policy engagement, academic collaboration, co-delivery of programs, and international outreach. This collective commitment will enable Isōko to serve as a powerful engine for peace education, innovation, and global impact.

Action Plan

July – December 2025: Determination of scope of services and formalization of partnerships. Beginning of revision and expansion of curriculum for peace education. Announcements of leadership appointments, reorganization of roles from the Kigali Genocide Memorial to the Isōko Centre for Humanity. Securing launch funding for the Isōko Centre (with now >$3 million in proposals under consideration) . Determine the priority regions for programming (likely US, Bosnia, Central Africa, Gaza, and Ukraine) . Establish 20 partnerships with universities, scholarly institutes, NGOs and governments in support of the work of the Isōko.

January 2026: Construction of the Isōko Centre to begin in Bugesera, Rwanda, with completion by the end of 2027.

January – July 2026: Engage a minimum of 100 leaders trained in peace and values educational programming through the Isōko Centre for Humanity, with a total reach of 10,000 people in conflict (100 people per leader) . Continued growth of partnerships to 30. Grow the operating budget for peace education programming to $5 million.

July – December 2026: Expand to a minimum of 500 leaders trained in educational programming with a total reach of 50,000 (100 people per leader) . Continued growth of partnerships to 50. Grow the operational budget for peace education programming to $7 million.

January – December 2027: Expand to a minimum of 1000 leaders trained in educational programming with a total reach of 100,000 (100 people per leader) . Continued growth of partnerships with universities, scholars, governments, and NGOs to 75. Grow the operational budget for peace education programming to $8 million.

January – December 2028: Retain the goal of 1,000 leaders trained in educational programming with a total reach of 100,000 (100 people per leader) . Retain 75 partnerships. Grow the operational budget for peace education programming to $8 – $10 million. Open the physical campus of Isōko.

Over 200 million people died through genocide and atrocity crimes in the past 120 years. In an increasingly polarized world, large-scale identity-based violence presents an ever-greater threat to humanity today. Climate change is a growing driver of atrocity crimes. Causing food insecurity and mass migration, it already fuels extremism and conflict, as seen in Sudan and Syria.

The three principal drivers of conflict are: 1) poor governance over many decades, which has damaged faith in the government, gave rise to legitimate grievances, and produced a generation of disenfranchised youth lacking economic opportunities; 2) identity-based tensions, including religious divisions, and conflicts over scarce resources; 3) a cycle of rumors, fear, violence and retribution that is difficult to break. New strategies and approaches are needed, and unconventional leaders can emerge at times like these.

The people of Rwanda emerged from the Genocide against the Tutsis in 1994, facing a massive task of rebuilding its entire society. Since then, the nation has been an emerging leader in sharing its lessons on peace, conflict, and justice, particularly in Central and South Africa. Aegis Trust, through its work at its founding location (the National Holocaust Centre in the United Kingdom) and its global hub at the Kigali Genocide Memorial, has been part of Rwanda’s success. Its peace and values educational programming is an established part of the school curriculum in Rwanda.

Aegis Trust must grow to better serve a world in crisis; this moment requires creativity and new leadership to produce new solutions. Aegis Trust therefore is launching the Isōko Centre for Humanity to intervene in crises, develop sustainable livelihoods, provide trauma healing, and provide a revamped system of peace education to serve our shared world.

The Isōko Centre for Humanity seeks implementing partners who will make use of its peace education programming. In addition, it seeks state-of-the-art examples of “situation rooms” to make the Isōko Centre for Humanity a destination for those addressing conflict in real time. For its Museum of the Future, and museums, which will use AI and other new technologies to display information and curate exhibitions, it will need examples of best practices. The Isōko Centre for Humanity also wishes to collaborate with organizations to secure large-scale funding to undertake large-scale solutions to conflict.,Aegis Trust and the new Isōko Centre for Humanity work entirely through services and resources to other people, governments, and organizations. Its staff are practitioners and topic experts on conflict resolution and applied peacebuilding. Crucially, Aegis Trust and its new Isōko Centre for Humanity have the capacity to host those in conflict and peacebuilders from zones of conflict, both separately and “in the room” with those with whom they are in conflict to work toward resolution. Aegis Trust and its new Isōko Centre for Humanity have outstanding convening power to those countering risk, hate speech, identity violence, climate change, displacement and migration, and war. Aegis Trust has brought together countless people and organizations focused on transformational change, and the new Isōko Centre for Humanity stands ready to serve other commitment makers within the circle of influence of the Clinton Foundation.