International Day of Commemoration for Victims of Genocide

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of This Crime , and in September of 2025 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Resolution A/RES/79/328 expressing concern that, despite the efforts of the international community, many thousands of innocent human beings continue to be victims of genocide. The Resolution reiterated the responsibility of each individual State to protect its populations from genocide, which entails the prevention of such a crime, including incitement to it, through appropriate and necessary means, and that fighting impunity for the crime of genocide is an important factor in its prevention. In this regard, the Resolution requested the President of the General Assembly to convene a full-day high-level meeting to mark the tenth anniversary of the International Day to galvanize accelerated efforts on the prevention and punishment of the crime of...

Ahead of the 10th anniversary marking of the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of Victims of Crime of Genocide and Prevention of this Crime , the Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect and the Permanent Mission of Armenia to the United Nations are hosting a side-event on early warning and early action for genocide prevention.

Atrocity prevention  is less attuned to future threats that aren’t captured by related indicators. The project considers such emergent threats, ranging from climate migration to artificial intelligence , which lie just outside the usual umbrella of atrocity prevention .

The United Nations Office for Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect ; Established in 2005, the Office reports directly to the Secretary-General. The Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide is mandated to raise awareness of the causes and dynamics of genocide, alert the Secretary-General, and through him the Security Council, where there is a risk of genocide, and to advocate and mobilize for appropriate action. The Special Adviser on the Responsibility to Protect leads the conceptual, political, institutional, and operational development of the Responsibility to Protect principle . The Office collects information, conducts assessments of situations worldwide and alerts the Secretary-General, and other relevant actors, to the risk of atrocity crimes, as well as their incitement. The Office also undertakes training and provides technical assistance to promote a greater understanding of the causes and dynamics of atrocity crimes as well as enhance the capacity of...

In 2019, the United Nations Secretary-General launched the United Nations Strategy and Plan of Action on Hate Speech with two overriding objectives: to enhance UN efforts to address the root causes and drivers of hate speech in a coordinated way, with a focus on education as a preventive tool to raise awareness and build unity. to focus on the United Nations response to The impact of hate speech on societies , with an emphasis on engaging with relevant actors , strengthening advocacy, and developing guidance for counternarratives. The Strategy recognizes that hate speech is a precursor to atrocity crimes, including genocide . This was the case in the Holocaust as well as in Rwanda, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Cambodia. The United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect is the focal point for the Strategy and supports its implementation across the United Nations system and with other relevant actors.  

  In terms of Genocide prevention , the critical step is to identify the factors (discriminatory practices) in a given situation that lead to or account for acute disparities in the treatment of a diverse population, and to seek ways to diminish and eventually eradicate these possible causes of genocidal violence . Given that no country is perfectly homogeneous, genocide is a truly global challenge.