30TH ANNIVERSARY OF GENOCIDE 'Srebrenica Flower' placed in New York, official unveiling on Monday

(Patria) - As part of the UN Program for Information on the Srebrenica Genocide, and following the adoption of the Resolution in May 2024, the Srebrenica Flower installation will be unveiled on Monday, November 17 as a permanent memorial in the immediate vicinity of the United Nations building.

In May 2024, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution A/RES/78/282, which officially declared July 11 as the “International Day of Remembrance of the Srebrenica Genocide of 1995.”

Along with this decision, member states also requested the establishment of a special information program titled “The Srebrenica Genocide and the United Nations,” the creation of which was entrusted to the UN Secretary-General.

The program is managed by the Department of Global Communications (DGC) and the Office on Genocide Prevention (OSAPG), and its main objectives include: organizing the annual commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance, developing educational and informational activities to preserve established facts about the genocide and prevent its denial and distortion,
collecting testimonies of survivors and promoting educational content that teaches the lessons of Srebrenica and provides resistance to hatred and intolerance.

The Srebrenica Flower monument has eleven flower petals representing July 11, the date when the genocide was committed in 1995, while the white color symbolizes the innocence of the victims, and the green represents renewal and hope.

The permanent memorial at UN headquarters is conceived as a physical reminder of the message of Resolution 78/282: that Srebrenica must never be pushed to the margins of history, that the memory of the 8,372 killed persons be preserved, and that the importance of justice, accountability, and the shared obligation to ensure such crimes never happen again be not forgotten.

By placing the memorial in the very heart of the international community, the United Nations pays tribute to its own painful but extremely important history – one that carries lessons for future generations.

The unveiling of this installation will be attended by a delegation from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Mothers of Srebrenica, two members of the BiH Presidency Željko Komšić and Denis Bećirović, BiH Minister of Foreign Affairs Elmedin Konaković, and the head of the Mission to the UN Zlatko Lagumdžija.