The Third Global Forum “Genocide prevention through education, culture and museums” aimed at examining the challenges and opportunities, experiences and perspectives of genocide education. The Forum was inaugurated on Sunday, 9 December with a concert by the Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra and the Armenian National Academic Choir, dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Genocide Convention. The next day, the Forum was officially opened by high-level speakers, including Armenia’s Minister of Foreign Affairs H.E. Mr. Zohrab Mnatsakanyan, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide Mr. Adama Dieng, and GAAMAC Chair Ms. Mô Bleeker.

Ms. Bleeker introduced GAAMAC, which was formed “with the view to overcome crucial gaps between the many discourses, existing norms and standards, and the lack of effective action in the field of atrocity prevention”. The common goal of GAAMAC’s community of commitment, she stressed, is to “generate, support and strengthen national prevention mechanisms, policies and architectures”. Speaking about the importance of prevention, she added: “Prevention – when designed as a permanent endeavor – becomes feasible, doable. It becomes possible to detect problems at an early stage, to understand their nature thanks to the support of civil society and academia, and to take informed early decision and implement effective early action as a collaborative effort”.

Several GAAMAC Steering Group members, partners and GAAMAC Global Meeting participants contributed to the Global Forum as panelists. Among them Prof. Andrea Bartoli, Dean of the School of Diplomacy and International Relations at Seton Hall University; Dr. Tetsushi Ogata, Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at Soka University of America; Mr. Mofidul Hoque, Founder and Trustee of the Liberation War Museum of Bangladesh; and Ms. Assumpta Mugiraneza, Co-Founder and Director of the IRIBA Centre for Multimedia Heritage in Rwanda (pictured above with GAAMAC Chair Mô Bleeker, Mr. Vahe Gevorgyan from the Foreign Ministry of Armenia and Mr. Emanuel Hernandez from Seton Hall University, both also GAAMAC III participants).

The Forum culminated in the unveiling of a new street name in Yerevan, dedicated to Raphael Lemkin, who had coined the term “genocide” and who had worked tirelessly to make the Genocide Convention a reality seventy years ago.