International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime Date in the current year: December 9, 2024

The term “genocide” refers to intentional action to destroy an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group in whole or in part. The most notorious examples of genocide in the 20th century include the genocide of Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians in the Ottoman Empire, the Jewish genocide in Nazi-occupied Europe (the Holocaust), the Rwandan genocide against the Tutsi, the Bosnian genocide, the Cambodian genocide carried out by the Khmer Rouge led by Pol Pot, and more.

Following the Second World War, the United Nations officially defined genocide in legal terms and declared it a grave crime against humanity. On December 9, 1948, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention of the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide aimed to prevent and punish the acts of genocide both in peacetime and during war and armed conflicts.

In 2015, the anniversary of the adoption of the Convention was designated as the International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide. Its main purpose is to commemorate and honor the victims of genocide, as well as to raise awareness of the role of the Convention in preventing and combating genocide.