WASHINGTON, DC – As part of the Armenian National Committee of America’s (ANCA) ongoing outreach to the broader genocide-prevention community, Executive Director Aram Hamparian shared the Armenian American advocacy experiences with participants in Ecumenical Advocacy Days, an annual gathering of over a thousand Christian activists from around the nation concerned about U.S. foreign policy in Africa and the Middle East.

In his March 11th presentation on the Darfur Genocide, Hamparian began by noting the profound gratitude of Armenians for the role that Christian churches played in raising protests during the Armenian Genocide, providing relief to its survivors, and in establishing orphanages for the countless thousands of children left parentless by this crime. Stressing the special responsibility that Armenians bear as victims of the 20th Century’s first genocide, Hamparian discussed the efforts by the Armenian American community to bear witness to the horrific human costs of genocide, to press for action to end the genocide in Darfur, and, more broadly, to help generate the political will to ensure that this crime is never again visited upon any other peoples – anywhere in the world. He then spent the remainder of his presentation outlining the policy-based and practical political steps needed to build an effective anti-genocide constituency at both the grassroots and national levels.

Also speaking as part of this panel discussion were Elnour Adam from the Darfur Rehabilitation Project and John Heffernan, the Genocide Prevention Initiative Director of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Conscience. The panel discussion was moderated by Marie Clarke Brill, Africa Action’s Director for Public Education and Mobilization.

Among the organizations sponsoring the program were the World Council of Churches, the National Council of Churches, American Friends Service Committee, Children’s Defense Fund, Episcopal Church USA, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, and the United Methodist Church. Featured speakers at the program included E.J. Dionne, Jr., a columnist for the Washington Post; Rev. Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook, Senior Pastor at the Believers Christian Fellowship and President of the 10,000 member Hampton (Virginia) University Ministries’ Conference, and; Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, who is widely regarded as a leading voice in the ecumenical movement. He formerly served as the Executive Secretary of the World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission.