President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak on Wednesday called for action to prevent hatred.
“We are not here today just to remember the Holocaust. We are also here to remind ourselves of our collective failure to prevent it,” he told an annual event of the United Nations to mark the international day in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. “Because the Holocaust was not a surprise. It did not happen overnight. We saw it coming, and we did not stop it.”
“We need more than meetings, or resolutions, or discussions. We need early action; we need quick responses; we need tangible results on the ground,” he said.
Lajcak said all the tools to do this already exist — in multilateralism.
He warned that in today’s world, red warning flashes are lighting for the prevalence of hatred. “Acts of genocide, systematic discrimination, anti-Semitism, racism, intolerance, Islamophobia, hate speech. However, we have not always acted in response.”
“Today we remember the darkest hour of our human history. We pay our respects to the people who lost their lives. And we honor those who took risks to prevent the suffering of others. But we must also call for action.”
