The United Nations Human Rights Council has adopted by consensus a Resolution on Prevention of genocide, sponsored by Armenia.
“Most grateful to all cosponsors and members of the Council. Armenia continues to promote this important topic in international agenda,” Foreign Minister Zohrab Mnatsakanyan said in a Twitter post.
“The resolution is a manifestation of Armenia’s continuing and resolute commitment to the international efforts for genocide prevention. It’s a call to prevent deterioration of the human rights violations into such an egregious crime as genocide is. It’s pertinent and urgent as we all witness gross abuses of human rights in different parts of the world,” Armenia’s Permanent Representative Andranik Hovhannisyan, Permanent Representative of Armenia to the United Nations Office at Geneva, said as he presented the draft.
“Today it is not enough just to say “Never Again!” If pronouncing that motto loud enough should have had any effect, or one that we wanted, there should have been no more instances of the crime of genocide registered anywhere around the globe,” he added.
Hovhannisyan added that “the Council will thus recognize that genocide is typically preceded or accompanied by widespread human rights violations, patterns of discrimination, statements by public figures that express support for the affirmation of superiority of a group.”
“The resolution expresses concern that justification, biased accounts, or denial of genocide may increase the risk of the recurrence of violence. The draft resolution requests the High Commissioner to organize an inter-sessional meeting on strengthening capacities for the prevention of genocide. The Council will also invite SG’s Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide to an interactive dialogue,” he said.
“Armenia cherishes the international consensus on the need to mobilize our efforts to prevent the scourge of genocide,” explained Hovhannisyan.
I would like to recall that the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneve adopted a resolution in 1985 recognizing the Genocide of the Armenians committed by Turkey in 1915. A small team committed to the Armenian Cause have led this fight for many years among these few eminent Armenian personalities in the Heart of Combat, from all corners of the diaspora world, intellectuals and experts in international public law, lawyers, political scientist, participated Messrs. Varoujan Attarian, Hrair Balian, Harut Sassounian. I was an assistant witness. Subsequently, in 1987, it was in Brussels that Europe recognized the Genocide committed by Turkey and this fight continued, without letting go, by the Committee of Defense of the Armenian Cause with the Tachnaktsoutioun with the results we know internationally and it is not over …
This is where the civilized world should come together and put an end to all Genocides, hold responsible to all who commit and punish them with no exceptions.
The UN human right council must Seriously take action to this very important matter.
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 each brain cell
To guide spirits into the right light.
Let harsh minds listen every night
To symphonies praising human rights.
I am yours, always yours.
No one can grab me by force.
I like to scream very loud . . .
Human rights are everyone’s birthright.
Let my voice from my heartiest soul,
Reach farther than both polar sites.
Let tears of the speakers on human rights
Flow 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 moonlight.
Let all raise the faithful flag of human rights
In the suppressed corners of Crying Crowds
To detect, narrate, and prevent birthing crimes.
Let slayers confess past deeds,
Thus prevent further genocides*.
(C) Sylva Portoian
Sylva Portoian,MD,MSc,MFPHM,FRCP.CH (UK) (Pediatrician & Poet)
Winner of The Carnegie Poetry Prize, Spring 2009
Twenty Historical Poetry Books in three languages globally.
and 10 medical articles in international journals including The Lancet.
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* Armenian genocide of April 24, 1915