March 13, 2022

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PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS, the word "genocide" was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin in 1944 consisting of the Greek prefix genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing, to describe the systematic destruction of all or a significant part of a racial, ethnic, religious or national group by destroying a group's political and social institutions, culture, language, national feelings, religion and economic existence, and destroying the personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of individuals belonging to the group; and

WHEREAS, in 1946, following World War II, genocide was first recognized by the United Nations General Assembly as a crime under international law; and

WHEREAS, in 1948, the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide was codified by the United Nations and since has been ratified by 149 states/nations; and

WHEREAS, in 2008, the Genocide Prevention Task Force, convened by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the American Academy of Diplomacy, and the United States Institute of Peace, issued a report finding that to prevent future genocides and mass atrocities, effective prevention measures must be implemented before a crisis has erupted, and that educating the public can help protect individual rights and promote a culture of lawfulness that will help prevent future genocides; and

WHEREAS, April has been recognized/designated by many states/nations around the globe as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month to coincide with the beginning of numerous modern genocides, including those in Armenia (1915), the Ukrainian Holodomor (1932-33), the Holocaust (1941), Cambodia (1972), Bosnia (1992), Rwanda (1994) and Darfur (2003); and

WHEREAS, in the words of President Ronald Reagan: "Like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians which followed it and like too many other such persecutions of too many other peoples the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten."

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Tate Reeves, Governor of the State of Mississippi, hereby proclaim April 2022 as Genocide Awareness and Prevention Month in the State of Mississippi.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of Mississippi to be affixed.

DONE in the City of Jackson, on the 13th day of March in the year of our Lord, two thousand and twenty-two, and of the Independence of the United States of America, the two hundred and forty-sixth.