On September 11, 2015 the United Nations (UN) General Assembly proclaimed December 9 the “International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.” The resolution, spearheaded by the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the UN, was adopted by consensus and was supported by over 80 member states.
In his speech on the adoption of the resolution, Armenian Ambassador to the UN Zohrab Mnatsakanyan noted: “Millions of human lives have been lost as a result of the most horrendous crime – the crime of Genocide, which humankind has, to its shame, demonstrated the ability to commit.”
Argentinian-Armenian Vera Anush Nazarian is an adviser at the Mission of Armenia to the UN. Together with the mission, she played a key role in getting the resolution passed. “The moment I saw my ambassador submit the resolution, co-sponsored by 83 UN member states, I felt peace come over me. I was filled with a sense of achievement, of having placed a symbolic stone on our martyrs’ absent graves,” she said.
December 9 was not chosen at random: on that day in 1948, the UN adopted the “Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.” The UN defines Genocide as “a crime that is committed against members of a national, ethnic or religious group solely because they are members of that group. Genocide also entails there being intent to exterminate a particular group.”
The new resolution encourages states, international organizations and civil society to observe the International Day in order to raise awareness of the 1948 Convention and its role in combating and preventing Genocide, and to commemorate and honor its victims. “Power and political interests speak to the darkest side of human nature, we can see it every day. Certain peoples are still being targeted, and Genocides are still being perpetrated. I think we are all responsible for human tragedies if we are mere passive observers of these events. This resolution will raise awareness on the tragedies suffered by many of our peoples and will create opportunities to prevent Genocide,” Nazarian believes.
Over the course of 2014 and 2015 the international community commemorated significant anniversaries of the most atrocious crimes of the past century, including the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz, the 40th anniversary of the Cambodian Genocide and the the 20th anniversaries of the Genocide in Rwanda and at Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina.