International Recognition of Genocides: Armenian, Holocaust, Tutsi, and Srebrenica

The United Nations General Assembly has officially designated July 11 as the International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide, marking the worst massacre on European soil since World War II. This decision comes despite protests from Serbia, where about 8,000 Bosniak men and boys were brutally executed by Serbian forces in Srebrenica, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in 1995.

The massacre, recognized as genocide by various international courts, now joins other tragic events in history that have been acknowledged by the UN. These include the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda.

The Armenian Genocide, which took place between 1915 and 1916, saw the deaths of between 800,000 and 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Empire. Despite Turkey denying the term genocide, several countries have recognized it. However, there is no official international commemoration day for this event.

The Holocaust, in which 6 million European Jews were killed by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1945, was officially recognized as genocide by the Nuremberg Court in 1945. January 27 is now designated as the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the Holocaust victims.

The Tutsi Genocide in Rwanda, which resulted in the deaths of up to a million Rwandans, mostly Tutsis, in 1994, was recognized by the UN in a report on June 28 of that year. April 7 is now designated as the International Day of Reflection on the Genocide of the Tutsis in Rwanda.

While these genocides have been officially recognized by the UN, there are still other atrocities that remain unrecognized at the international level. For example, the German government acknowledged the extermination of tens of thousands of Hereros and Namas in Namibia between 1904 and 1907 as atrocities that would be called genocide today, making it the first genocide of the 20th century.

The official commemoration of the Srebrenica Genocide serves as a reminder of the importance of acknowledging and remembering past atrocities to prevent such events from happening again in the future.