Peace activist, human rights defender and 1997 Nobel Peace Laureate Jody Williams will be at United Nations Headquarters on 11 February to take part in the United Nations Academic Impact’s “Classroom Conversation”. The event, simply called “A conversation with Jody Williams”, will focus on her peace activism and grass roots campaign. It will take place in Conference Room 2 from 3 to 5 p.m.

The Holocaust took the lives of 6 million Jews and countless other victims who suffered at the hands of the Nazis and their collaborators seven decades ago. Understanding its causes, the impact it had on the victims and their families, and finding a means of preventing other such atrocities today is the main reason why the United Nations and countries around the world will hold memorial ceremonies on 27 January.

The United Nations Department of Public Information, in partnership with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, has produced subtitles for the Museum’s film, The Path to Nazi Genocide, in all United Nations official languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

22 January 2014

Press ReleaseNote No. 6402

Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York

Note to Correspondents

Exhibition to Open at Headquarters on 28 January as Part

 

of United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Activities

 

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and experts in the field of genocide prevention and international justice will mark the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide on 9 December.

On 18 November, in observance of the third anniversary of the United Nations Academic Impact, students from the tri-state area will attend a youth forum, the focus of which will be “Making a difference”.

As most of the world closed its doors to Jews who were desperately seeking refuge from persecution in Germany on the eve of the Second World War, one nation, the Philippines, did not. The documentary film Rescue in the Philippines: Refuge from the Holocaust tells this gripping story through interviews with historians, friends and relatives of key participants and first person accounts from refugees who detail their harrowing escape.

The United Nations Academic Impact, in partnership with the United States-based Council on Foreign Relations, will launch a new quarterly “talk” on global issues, the first of which will take place on 1 November.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki‑moon will designate the world-renowned pianist Lang Lang from China as a United Nations Messenger of Peace with a special focus on global education. The designation ceremony will take place at United Nations Headquarters on Monday, 28 October, at a press conference to be held in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium at noon. Lang Lang will perform Chopin’s Waltz No. 1 for the occasion.

The International Day of Peace will be marked around the world on Saturday, 21 September. The Secretary-General has called on people around the world “to observe a minute of silence at noon, local time, to honour those killed in conflict and the survivors who live with daily trauma and pain”.