São Paulo, Brazil: The Zoryan Institute is proud to share that its alumni organized Brazil’s very first International Congress on Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and Human Rights with the participation of members from its Board of Directors.

This congress, hosted by the Faculty of Law at the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC-SP), in São Paulo, Brazil, took place on April 28-29, 2025, during Genocide Awareness Month. The two-day conference was part of a cycle of events commemorating the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and addressed topics such as: genocide prevention; historical case analyses including the Armenian Genocide, the Nazi Holocaust, Rwanda and Indigenous Genocide in Brazil; the impact of artificial intelligence and climate change on new genocidal crimes; the importance of human rights education; and the role of legal institutions in promoting peace and preventing atrocities.

The Institute’s own 2024 Genocide and Human Rights University Program (GHRUP) alumni, lawyer and doctoral candidate, Nathália Hovsepian, was one of the co-organizers of this congress which featured many Zoryan Institute alumni and GHRUP faculty and directors, emphasizing the immense reach and impact of the program.

GHRUP has over 500 alumni from 73 different countries. The majority of these graduates have gone on to become professors, international lawyers, diplomats, researchers, and fearless human rights defenders, all making a tremendous impact across the globe. The Institute takes great pride in the large community of students that it has welcomed from Latin America since the course’s inception in 2002, and particularly those from Brazil and Argentina, who have all contributed greatly to the advancements in human rights scholarship, education and international law.

The Congress on Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and Human Rights, featured three members of the Zoryan Institute’s leadership: GHRUP Course Director and Zoryan Institute’s Vice Academic Chair, Prof. Alex Alvarez of Northern Arizona University; Zoryan Institute Board Member, GHRUP alumnus and Argentine lawyer Federico Gaitan Hairabedian; and Zoryan Institute Corporate Board Member, Ambassador of Armenia to Brazil, Mr. Armen Yeganian.

Several GHRUP alumni also participated in the congress, including lawyer and PhD student Nathália Hovsepian; professor Dr. Flávio de Leão Bastos Pereira; historian Dr. Heitor Loureiro; and political scientist Mariana Boujikian. This conference also featured historian Julia Tordeur, who we have the pleasure of welcoming to the upcoming 2025 GHRUP in Toronto this summer.

In addition to the panel discussions that were widely attended by audience members from Brazil, Armenia, Canada, Argentina and beyond, the Zoryan Institute had a showcase of its travelling exhibit, “Women and Genocide: From Persecution to Empowerment”, created in partnership with the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute (AGMI) of Yerevan. The exhibit explores the universal impact of genocide, the gender dimensions of such atrocities, and the critical role women have played in post-genocide recovery and nation-building, focusing on the Armenian Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan Genocide.

For more information on the 1st International Congress on Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and Human Rights, please visit https://eventos.pucsp.br/1-cigchdh/. To learn more about the Zoryan Institute’s Genocide and Human Rights University Program, please visit www.genocidestudies.org/ghrup.