UN Human Rights Council Adopts Resolution on Prevention of Genocide

GENEVA, Switzerland (A.W.)—On March 27, the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution on the prevention of genocide (A/HRC/28/L.25). Introduced by the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations, the resolution recommends that the General Assembly designate Dec. 9 as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of Genocide, “in order to raise awareness of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and its role in combatting and preventing the crime of genocide.”

The resolution stresses that the fight against impunity is key to the prevention of genocide. It also underscores the importance of genocide education and the need to identify the root causes of genocide, and suggests that a list of contact points be established to strengthen efforts toward prevention. It also expresses the need for “enhanced international cooperation.”

The resolution further “condemns the intentional public denial or glorification of crimes of genocide and crimes against humanity as defined by international law, and notes with concern that public denials create a risk of further violations and undermine efforts to prevent genocide.”

On Feb. 13, the government of Armenia approved a motion declaring Dec. 9 as the “Day of Remembrance of Victims of All Genocides.” According to the reasoning submitted by the sponsoring members of Parliament, the adoption of the law will set Dec. 9 as the day of condemnation and remembrance of all genocides, “based on the fact that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on Dec. 9, 1948.”

The full text of the UNHRC resolution can be read here.

5 Comments

  1. I now expect that Ms. Meline Toumani, who claims in her book “There Was and There Was Not” that Armenians are “obsessed” with the Armenian genocide and filled with “hate”, will now claim that the UN and Planet Earth (if not the entire solar system) are similarly obsessed and filled with hate.

  2. A Human’’s Rights

    Do not seize me in your cave
    Open your door let me behave
    To see the world in its fight
    To try to protect every human right!

    Let me grasp a red pen in hot hands,
    Writing poems to justify rationales.
    Let me write to billions of inhumane breaths,
    Let them feel ashamed of sinful fights.

    Let the righteous rays shine on every-brain
    To guide spirits into the right light.
    Let harsh minds listen every night
    To symphonies praising humans’’ right.

    I am yours, always yours.
    No one can grab me by force.
    I like to scream very loud;
    Human rights are everyone’’s birth right.

    Let my voice, from the heartiest soul,
    Reach further than both polar sites.
    Let tears of the speakers on human rights
    Flows like waterfalls on starved lands.

    Don’’t hide me in an unsown cave,
    I’’m kind and heartily brave;
    I have genes to know every right,
    From sunshine to moon light.

    Let all raise the faithful flag of human rights,
    In the suppressed corners of ‘‘Crying Crowds’’
    To detect, narrate, yet prevent birthing crimes.
    Let slayers confess past deeds*,
    Thus prevent further Genocides.

    (C) Sylva Portoian, MD
    * Atmenian Genocide of April 24,1915
    From my poetry books “A poetic soul shined of Genocides” (2008)

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