The Islamic Human Rights Commission (IHRC) is pleased to announce that its eighteenth Annual Genocide Memorial Day will take place on Sunday, 17 January 2027, at P21 Gallery in London.
The World After the Rules: Reimagining Global Justice
About the GMD 2027 event
This year’s theme is The World After the Rules: Reimagining Global Justice. On Genocide Memorial Day (GMD) 2027, we are compelled to confront not only the horrors of the past but also the profound failures of the present international order. The promise of “never again” rings hollow as the institutions established to prevent and punish mass atrocities appear increasingly unable—or unwilling—to fulfil their mandates. The International Criminal Court has been widely criticised for the selective application of international justice, while powerful states strip it of any shred of authority when its jurisdiction threatens their own interests or those of their allies. Meanwhile, the United Nations appears paralysed, unable to enforce its own resolutions or halt atrocities unfolding before the world’s eyes in multiple conflicts and regions.
Genocide Memorial Day is intended to affirm that there should be no hierarchy of genocides: every crime against humanity, whether historical or contemporary, deserves equal remembrance, recognition and accountability. Yet this principle sits uneasily alongside recent events surrounding the UN General Assembly resolution adopted on 25 March 2026, in which 123 Member States, led by Ghana and supported by the African Union and Caribbean nations, recognised the transatlantic slave trade as “the gravest crime against humanity.” The resolution also called for formal apologies and financial reparations.
The resolution was opposed by the United States, Israel and Argentina, while the United Kingdom and 52 other Member States – including every member of the European Union – abstained. Those abstaining cited concerns over legal liability and opposition to creating a hierarchy of historical atrocities. Yet, in refusing to recognise the transatlantic slave trade in the terms proposed by the resolution, they arguably reinforced precisely such a hierarchy—one in which the crimes from which they benefited, and the suffering inflicted on millions of Africans and their descendants, are afforded less recognition and accountability than other crimes against humanity. For many observers, the reluctance of states with deep historical involvement in the transatlantic slave trade to endorse the resolution reflected the enduring tension between acknowledging historical responsibility and protecting contemporary political and legal interests.
If international law cannot be applied fairly, consistently, and accountability remains contingent on geopolitical power rather than universal principles, then the international legal order itself risks becoming impotent. Institutions established to protect humanity lose their legitimacy when they cannot, or will not, hold powerful states and their allies to the same standards expected of everyone else. The consequence is not merely institutional failure but human suffering. When states and tyrant rulers conclude that accountability is selective, or that powerful nations can act with impunity while others alone face justice, the deterrent effect of international law is eviscerated. The perception that some states can commit atrocities without consequence encourages others to believe they too can act with impunity, leaving millions across the globe vulnerable to tyranny, oppression and mass atrocities without meaningful recourse to justice.
The question can no longer be avoided: can the existing international order be reformed in a way that restores its credibility and independence, or has the post-imperial system, inherited from the twentieth-century European powers, become so compromised by the interests of today’s most powerful states that it must be fundamentally reimagined? If the promise of equal justice is to mean anything, if “never again” is to mean anything, the international community must be willing to consider a new global framework, one that is genuinely impartial, places the rights and protection of victims above the geopolitical interests of states, and applies international law, protective mechanisms and accountability without fear, favour or exception.
WHEN: Sunday, 17 January 2027, from 3pm to 6pm
WHERE: P21 Gallery, 21-27 Chalton Street, NW1 1JD, London
SPEAKERS: TBC
TICKETS: sales opening soon
