UNITED NATIONS, FOUNDED TO PREVENT repeat OF second WORLD WAR HORRORS, ACT ON ITS

LESSONS, IS ‘NATURAL HOME’ TO HOLOCAUST EXHIBITION, SAYS DEPUTY SECRETARY-GENERAL

Following is the text of Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro at the opening of the exhibit on the Holocaust and the United Nations, in New York, 30 January:

The Holocaust was a horrific failure for our common humanity.  The mass killing of 6 million Jews and other minorities is a burden we all still share.  It continues to fundamentally challenge the foundations of our civilization.  It obliges us to examine how any society could allow such a tragedy to happen.  It imposes on us a duty to pass these lessons on to our children.

That is why exhibitions such as this are so important.  Every time we view these images and see the faces of the victims, we remember every man, woman and child slaughtered by the Nazis and stand in solidarity with their families and with survivors around the world.  Those faces are a direct response to the Holocaust deniers.  And they are a direct reminder of the untold contributions of those who perished -- contributions of which posterity was deprived.

The United Nations is a natural home to a permanent exhibition like this -- not only because the Organization was founded to prevent a recurrence of the horrors of World War II, but also because of our continuing duty to act on its lessons.  Two years ago, the General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution designating 27 January as an annual International Day in memory of the Holocaust victims; it urged Member States to develop educational programmes to instil the lessons of the Holocaust in future generations, so as to help prevent future acts of genocide; it rejected any denial of the Holocaust as an historical event; and it requested the Secretary-General to establish a programme of outreach on the Holocaust and the United Nations, as well as measures to mobilize civil society for remembrance and education.

This exhibition forms a natural part of all those efforts.  It is entirely appropriate that we unveil it at the start of this year -- the year in which we commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  The Declaration was adopted just a few short years after the liberation of Auschwitz and other death camps, and provided the first global statement of what many now take for granted:  the inherent dignity and equality of all human beings.  Now, 60 years later, the United Nations is conducting a year-long campaign to ensure that the rights enshrined in the Declaration are a living reality.  In a world where those rights continue to be egregiously violated, and mass atrocities are still perpetrated, it is those who most need their human rights protected, who also need to be informed that the Declaration exists -- and that it exists for them.

I hope this exhibition will guide and inspire us in our mission.  May we always remember; may we always be vigilant; may we never stand idly by in the face of evil.

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For information media • not an official record