Yerevan will host the global social-political forum entitled “Against the Crime of Genocide” on 22-23 April.

This is what RA Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Karen Nazaryan informed during an April 20 press conference at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts (Matenadaran), mentioning that the global forum will bring together nearly 600 delegates and will include meetings and interviews.

“Armenia attaches importance to the identification of the issues of prevention and continues to undertake initiatives within inter-governmental and inter-parliamentary structures. The purpose of the forum is to add to the priorities of Armenia’s foreign policy and contribute to the implementation of those priorities, making the issue of development of mechanisms for genocide prevention a topic for discussion at the regional and international levels in order to completely rule out the repetition of the events of 1915 and other similarly horrible crimes in different corners of the globe,” he said.

Karen Nazaryan went on to present the format for the global forum and informed that the forum is going to be launched by RA President Serzh Sargsyan on April 22.

“We are looking forward to speeches by Speaker of the National Assembly, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, government officials and Members of Parliament. We are looking forward to seeing high-ranking foreign diplomats, parliamentarians, representatives of inter-parliamentary assemblies, foreign international law experts and delegates of international genocide research centers,” he said.

The deputy minister mentioned that the forum would include interactive discussions and a plenary session.

“The topic for the first day of the forum will be “The Development of Mechanisms for the Prevention of Crimes against Humanity in International Law”, which will be aimed at identifying the historical development of the formation of a conceptual paper on the crime against humanity and the potential perspectives of further expansion. The special focus will be on the comparative study of massive violent acts that have been committed in different periods and in different places and what kind of an impact the denial of genocide can have on international security and people, as well as several other issues. These will be the main issues,” he said.

Karen Nazaryan mentioned that the second session will be devoted to the elimination of the consequences of the Armenian Genocide and liability with the main focus on the restoration of the rights to liability for the crime of genocide and the guarantees to make sure such crimes are never repeated.

The plenary session of the forum will be held on April 23 with the topic “Parliamentarians against Genocide” with speeches by delegates of various parliaments that have recognized the Armenian Genocide with relevant statements and resolutions.

“The goal of the plenary session is to raise awareness about the substantial contributions that parliamentarians can make to the prevention of genocides,” Nazaryan said.