The Global Forum also addressed the issues of combating genocide denial and propaganda of xenophobia, discussed how genocide histories are erased from, trivialized and denied in textbooks and curricula across the world, how the narrative of denialism changes through time. Special attention was paid to making steps in raising awareness of younger generation on countering xenophobia, hate speech and intolerance, thus contributing to the preventing measures against the formation of genocidal environment.
The Global Forum also provided a good opportunity to present the activities of international organizations in raising awareness about genocides, as well as the efforts implemented in this regard by the civil society organizations.
As noted by Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia: “Manifestations of hate, extremism, racism, xenophobia and discrimination continue to shake the world, by primarily targeting national and ethnic minorities. Denial and impunity are the main obstacles to prevention. Denied justice continues to pursue generations of Genocide survivors and hinders real reconciliation. We know this from our own experience. The 70th anniversary of the Convention is an opportunity to once again turn the international community’s attention to the fight against genocide and the importance of prevention. Armenia has indeed been at the forefront of this undertaking… Armenia, as a country that has consistently pushed forward the genocide prevention agenda, including within the framework of the United Nations, has headed the call for the universal ratification of the Convention and, using a range of UN procedures, including the opportunity for universal periodic review, has raised this issue, inviting the attention of UN member states to the importance of this question.”
Sometimes called the first genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.
The origin of the term genocide and its codification in international law have their roots in the mass murder of Armenians in 1915–16. Lawyer Raphael Lemkin, the coiner of the word and later its champion at the United Nations, repeatedly stated that early exposure to newspaper stories about Ottoman crimes against Armenians was key to his beliefs about the need for legal protection of groups (a core element in the UN Genocide Convention of 1948).
At the end of the conference a naming ceremony was held for one of the streets of Armenia’s capital, Erywań named after Rafał Lemkin.