International Association of Genocide Scholars

The organization's membership includes academics, anti-genocide activists, artists, genocide survivors, journalists, jurists, and public policy makers.

[12] The official peer-reviewed academic journal of the association is called Genocide Studies and Prevention.

Gregory Stanton founded The Cambodian Genocide Project in 1982 to bring Khmer Rouge leaders to justice.

However, what had been a marginalized area of study became one of urgent interest and scholarship as a response to the genocides in Rwanda and the Balkans in 1994 and 1995.

The idea for an organization of genocide scholars grew out of a meeting between Israel Charny, Helen Fein, Robert Melson and Roger Smith at the Remembering for the Future Two conference, held at Humboldt University in Berlin in 1994.

With over 500 persons in attendance and numerous panels and presentations, there was only one three-hour session on the comparative study of genocide.

The organization's first conference was held in 1995 at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, US, with about 45 persons attending.

With the rapid growth and global interest in genocide studies, a number of scholars pushed for a more international perspective and argued that conferences should be held outside North America.

In 2006, the IAGS, in partnership with the Zoryan Institute, an Armenian organization in Toronto, Canada, began publication of Genocide Studies and Prevention.

Over 500 people attended the conference, including many participants from Bosnia, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

It focused on the risks of conflicts and genocide that may be related to environmental destruction, climate change, and the world's population explosion.

The 2023 IAGS conference was scheduled to be held in person and virtually at the University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.