UNIS/SGSM/1296
25 January 2023
Today, we honor the memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
We remember the six million Jewish children, women, and men, as well as the Roma and Sinti, the people with disabilities, and countless others who perished.
We reflect on the millions of individual lives cut short; the millions of futures stolen away.
As we mourn the loss of so many and so much, we also recognize that the Holocaust was not inevitable. No genocide ever is.
It was the culmination of millennia of antisemitic hate.
The Nazis could only move with calculated cruelty from the discrimination of Europe’s Jews to their annihilation because so few stood up, and so many stood by.
It was the deafening silence – both at home and abroad – that emboldened them.
The alarm bells were ringing from the very beginning.
Hate speech and disinformation.
Contempt for human rights and the rule of law.
The glorification of violence and tales of racial supremacy.
Disdain for democracy and diversity.
In remembering the Holocaust, we recognize threats to freedom, dignity, and humanity – including in our own time.
Today – in the face of growing economic discontent and political instability, escalating white supremacist terrorism, and surging hate and religious bigotry – we must be more outspoken than ever.
We must never forget – nor allow others to ever forget, distort or deny the Holocaust.
Today and every day, let us resolve to never again remain silent in the face of evil – and to always defend the dignity and rights of all.
Thank you.
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"The ocean is the foundation of life. It supplies the air we breathe and food we eat. It regulates our climate and weather. The ocean is our planet’s greatest reservoir of biodiversity. Its resources sustain communities, prosperity and human health around the world. Humanity counts on the ocean. But can the ocean count on us?" — António Guterres
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) have launched a new database listing current and past projects from space agencies in support of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Asia-Pacific Space Cooperation Organization (APSCO) have announced their collaboration under the Space Law for New Space Actors project.
The Commissioner-General of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, will brief the media following an Executive Briefing to Member States at the Vienna International Centre. Mr Lazzarini will share updates on the challenges faced in UNRWA’s five fields of operations, including the impact of recurrent financial constraints on the lives of Palestine refugees.
