Author, Speaker, Founder, Advocate, and Humanitarian
Lara Kajs is an author, speaker, founder, advocate, and humanitarian. She is the Founder and Executive Director of The Genocide Report, an NGO nonprofit (501c3) in Washington, DC. She is an international expert on atrocity crimes, forced displacement, state terrorism, and International Humanitarian Law. She consults with the UN and the ICC.
Kajs founded The Genocide Report in 2011, to bring awareness to the Syrian crisis. However, soon after launching the organization, the team began receiving emails and sources from other countries reporting human rights abuses, expanding TGR’s focus.
Praises for her book on the humanitarian crisis in Stories from Yemen: A Diary from the Field.
Inspired by 17 months spent in Yemen between 2018 and 2021, her first book, Stories from Yemen: A Diary from the Field, shares the stories of more than a hundred Yemeni men, women, and children, and how the conflict, which is still ongoing, has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Through displacement, being unhoused, food insecurity, sickness, and economic collapse; there is grave concern for the safety and well-being of noncombatants, as they try to avoid the conflict, airstrikes, bullets, landmines, and traffickers. She discusses the causes of the crisis and considers possible outcomes for peace. Kajs shares her own story of survival when the coalition airstrikes forced her team and twenty-seven Yemeni civilians, into a building that collapsed on them and trapped the group for three days.
Her forthcoming work, Syria’s Disappeared: Torture and Mass Executions in Bashar Al-Assad’s Prison (2023), investigates the disappearances of more than one hundred thousand Syrian men, and the mass executions that have occurred during the decade-long conflict at the hands of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Also forthcoming, Homeless in Conflict (2024), wrestles with the unprecedented number of forcibly displaced persons as a result of war and conflict – a number that has doubled in the last decade. State Terrorism in MENA: Libya, Lebanon, and Gaza (2025), collectively discusses each failed state and the breakdown of society when the people in charge, terrorize its citizens.
Using her voice
Lara Kajs has given more than 300 breakouts, workshops, and vignettes on the topics of atrocity crimes, forced displacement, state terrorism, and International Humanitarian Law. Her talks reveal a nefarious truth: that indifference and complacency have led to a double standard when applying equal measures of international law, holding all perpetrators accountable – even when the perpetrators are allies, and adhering to the law to end impunity. By understanding how this impacts the world today, Kajs says we gain the tools to face it, forge a better future for humanity, and increase opportunities for peace and security.
A strong advocate for caring for displaced populations, Kajs is using her voice to increase global awareness of the record numbers of people who have been forcibly displaced as a result of conflict, persecution, natural disasters, and climate crisis. She frequently speaks on the pressing need to find solutions to humanitarian displacement and the need for safeguards to ensure International Humanitarian Law is honored and that civilians are not targeted in conflict.
Lifelong learner and explorer
Kajs holds graduate degrees from The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Lincoln Memorial University, and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. She received a B.A. in Spanish from the University of Hawaii Manoa. She is a member of Kappa Delta Sorority, the International Society of Female Professionals, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the International Network of Genocide Scholars, and the American Historical Association.
Kajs was born in Birmingham, Alabama, is a passionate Crimson Tide fan, and an ardent lover of music – one rock band in particular. Well-traveled, she has journeyed to more than 140 countries and lived in seven. Kajs resides in Washington, DC.
For speaking and media inquiries please contact Stephanie Marcum at smarcum@thegenocidereport.org