The February 2020 launch of the Joint Justice Initiative at Australia's Parliament House featured the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by the Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU), Assyrian Universal Alliance (AUA) and Australian Hellenic Council (AHC), which declares Australia's recognition of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides as a priority on behalf of their communities.
Related: The Assyrian Genocide
Waters was re-elected to the Senate for a second stint in 2018 after an initial period in the Federal Parliament from 2011 to 2017. She is also the Deputy Leader of The Australian Greens, which calls for Federal Australian recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a party position.
The Queensland representative has been a strong and vocal advocate for social issues and refugees, among other causes during her time in public office.
"On behalf of Armenian-Australians, Assyrian-Australians and Greek-Australians, we thank Senator Larissa Waters for standing on the side of truth and justice in joining our growing calls for Australian recognition of the 1915 Genocides committed by Ottoman Turkey," said Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) Executive Director, Haig Kayserian.
The Joint Justice Initiative has so far announced the support of Waters, Senator Pat Dodson, Jason Falinski MP, Josh Burns MP, John Alexander MP, Senator Andrew Bragg and Bob Katter MP, with a promise of more announcements to come.
On 25th February 2020, over 100 Federal Australian parliamentarians, diplomats, departmental officials, political staffers, academics, media and community leaders were treated to cultural performances, food, wine and brandy, as well as the historic signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, which affirmed that the signatory public affairs representatives of the three communities were jointly committed to seeing Australia recognize the Turkish-committed Genocide against the Armenian, Greek and Assyrian citizens of the Ottoman Empire during World War I.
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