Raphael Lemkin (Polish: Rafał Lemkin; 24 June 1900 – 28 August 1959) was a Polish lawyer of Jewish descent who is known for coining the term genocide and campaigning to establish the Genocide Convention. During the Second World War, he campaigned vigorously to raise international outrage against atrocities in Axis-occupied Europe. It was during this time that Lemkin coined the term "genocide" to describe Nazi Germany's extermination policies against Jews and Poles.

As a young man, Lemkin became interested in laws against mass atrocities after learning about the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Because Raphael Lemkin's huge contribution to the institutional protection of human rights and nations and the introduction of the legal term Genocide into international legal conventions, the NATIONAL CENTER Development Foundation together with the Polish WSG UNIVERSITY, initiated the creation and installation of the Monument in his honor in Yerevan.