United Nations published this video item, entitled “Genocide Prevention – young people say never again (9 December – Genocide Prevention Day)” – below is their description.
As the world marks the 73RD anniversary of the establishment of the Genocide Convention, young people in Rwanda, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Northern Iraq, warn that the world is in danger of facing further genocides.
In Rwanda, Gatari Egide, the President of GAERG, a Genocide Survivors Organization, says that young people need to be educated against the dangers of hate speech and inter-communal violence. The 1994 Genocide against the Tutsis in Rwanda destroyed a vast number of families.
In Bosnia and Herzegovina, young leaders from the Bosniak and Serb communities take part in communal bridge-building, saying the older generations have failed to move on from past hostilities. Memories of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, when 8,000 men and boys were killed by Bosnian Serb forces, are still fresh.
And in Northern Iraq, where the Yazidi community faced atrocity crimes from the ISIL terrorist group in 2014, hundreds of thousands are still displaced.
Samia Qassim Mulhem, a Yazidi Human Rights Activist, Poet and Educator, works with displaced children to provide them with psychological support.
December 9th has become the “International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime.”
United Nations YouTube Channel
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The United Nations (UN) was established after World War II with the aim of preventing future wars. The organization is financed by assessed and voluntary contributions from its member states.
The UN’s chief administrative officer is the Secretary-General, currently Portuguese politician and diplomat António Guterres, who began his five year-term on 1 January 2017.
Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in Western Asia. The capital and largest city is Baghdad. Iraq is home to diverse ethnic groups including Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, Yazidis, Shabakis, Armenians, Mandaeans, Circassians, Sabians and Kawliya. Around 99% of the country’s 38 million citizens are Muslims, with small minorities of Christians, Yarsans, Yezidis and Mandeans also present. The official languages of Iraq are Arabic and Kurdish.
Iraq has a coastline measuring 58 km (36 miles) on the northern Persian Gulf and encompasses the Mesopotamian Alluvial Plain, the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range and the eastern part of the Syrian Desert. Two major rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates, run south through Iraq and into the Shatt al-Arab near the Persian Gulf. These rivers provide Iraq with significant amounts of fertile land. The region between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, historically known as Mesopotamia, is often referred to as the cradle of civilisation.
Iraq is a federal parliamentary republic consisting of 19 governorates, four of which make up the autonomous Kurdistan Region. Disputes over the sovereignty of Kurdistan Region continue.
Iraq is a founding member of the UN as well as of the Arab League, OIC, Non-Aligned Movement and the IMF.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country in South and Southeast Europe, located within the Balkans. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city.
Bosnia and Herzegovina is bordered by Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to the north and southwest. It is not entirely landlocked; to the south it has a narrow coast on the Adriatic Sea, which is about 20 kilometres (12 miles) long and surrounds the town of Neum.
The inland Bosnia region has a moderate continental climate, with hot summers and cold, snowy winters. In the central and eastern interior of the country the geography is mountainous, in the northwest moderately hilly, and in the northeast predominantly flatland. The smaller southern region, Herzegovina, has a Mediterranean climate and mostly mountainous topography.
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley where the African Great Lakes region and East Africa converge. One of the smallest countries on the African mainland, its capital city is Kigali.
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization that aims to maintain international peace and security.
At its founding, the UN had 51 member states; with the addition of South Sudan in 2011, membership is now 193, representing almost all of the world’s sovereign states.
