Yerevan /Mediamax/. The repeated brutalities committed by Boko Haram in Africa, the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State throughout the Middle East prove that the 21st century is experiencing violations of human rights and dignity at a pace faster than ever before.

It’s the introduction of the joint article published on prestigious American Huffington Post titled “Induce Memory to Serve Us” authored by Co-Founder of 100 LIVES initiative Ruben Vardanyan and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, who lost his family in Auschwitz concentration camp.

The article presents the main ideology and objectives of 100 LIVES initiative. The initiative was launched in New York on March 10.

“We have come together on the centenary of the modern era's first genocide – a crime committed by the Ottoman government against its own Armenian population – to say that it’s time we own the human suffering in our midst, both past and present, and to act to restrain such violence as consistently and publicly as the perpetrators. Even as politicians and societies debate actions to protect man's basic right to life, the rest of us can – we would say must – take center stage in international discourse, harness the hard lessons of past atrocities, and take pride in our ability to overcome, to thrive and to salute those who have chosen goodness and humanity over violence and evil,” wrote Ruben Vardanyan and Elie Wiesel.

The authors of the article noted that the tortured tales of genocide surviving Armenians, Jews, Rwandans and the people of Sudan should teach us that “no period of time, no region and no religion are immune to the political and social forces which can transform neighbors into perpetrators.”

Co-Founder of 100 LIVES initiative Ruben Vardanyan and Elie Wiesel recalled that forgetting man's past atrocities or ignoring those happening, now, today, in too many places around the world, is both callous and short-sighted, because it permits violence to happen again.

“Our new 100 Lives initiative will recognize and amplify the acts of redemption and salvation by people anywhere. Every year, 100 Lives will bestow a global humanitarian award -- The Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity – of USD 1 million. This initiative and the grant will contribute to the global efforts to raise public consciousness and encourage action to protect the most vulnerable, by rewarding those whose work demonstrates a commitment to that goal. An anniversary of a genocide will have meaning only if we collectively work to thank those who resisted and fought back then, as well as those who withstand and fight back now. We will honor and support them, not just by thanking them but also by joining them,” reads the article.