Human rights institute to be created at UCLA with proceeds from ‘The Promise’ movie

Over 20 million USD of proceeds from the Armenian Genocide themed movie ‘The Promise’ will be directed towards creating a new institute in the UCLA’s law school, Daily News reports.

“The Promise Institute for Human Rights will put our law school and this university at the forefront of human rights education and advocacy”, Jennifer L. Mnookin, dean of the law school, saying as quoted by Daily News. Jennifer L. Mnookin stated that the 20 million USD is the largest donation the law school has ever received for creating the institute.

“For many people, the Armenian Genocide is not well known. For 102 years, there’s been a systematic denial campaign. We hope that by moving out of the darkness that is the Armenian Genocide, we can move to the future and really lead through education, research, advocacy and scholarship in the realm of human rights,” Eric Esrailian, a co-producer of ‘The Promise’ and co-chief of the Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA’s medical school, stated. UCLA law professor Asli Bali will be the rst faculty director for the new institute.

“Armenians are not just focused on their own history. We want people to learn lessons from our history so that others can benet from that knowledge,” Eric Esrailian said. The premier of ‘The Promise’ movie will be held on April 21. It will be screened in Armenian cinemas from April 27