Remarks by the High Representative for UNAOC
at the International Holocaust Remembrance Day Commemoration
27 January 2026, AJC Headquarters, New York
Excellencies,
Distinguished Representatives,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me first to warmly thank AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights on Tuesday, for inviting me to this solemn event.
We gather today in remembrance of the Holocaust—one of history’s greatest moral catastrophes —and in honor of its victims, six million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazi regime and its collaborators.
The International Holocaust Remembrance Day is not only an act of memory; it is a moment of responsibility.
Responsibility to history, to truth, and to the living.
The Holocaust stands as a permanent warning of where antisemitism, dehumanization, and especially indifference can lead when institutions fail, when hate is normalized, and when unspeakable atrocities are tolerated.
Remembrance, therefore, must never be passive.
It must inform how we act today.
Distinguished guests,
The United Nations was created in the aftermath of the Holocaust, shaped by the determination that such atrocities should never happen again. It reflects the political realities and tensions of its Member States. The United Nations history includes moments of moral clarity and moments of profound challenge.
What matters most is not denying this complexity, but confronting it honestly—and ensuring that the lessons of the Holocaust guide our actions, decisions, and language today.
One lesson is clear: the United Nations have always advanced the Holocaust remembrance in partnership with many relevant stakeholders , within and outside the United Nations. Progress has depended on sustained collaboration with Jewish organizations, survivors, scholars, and community leaders who have brought historical truth, lived experience, and moral urgency into international spaces.
Their engagement has strengthened the UN’s understanding of the Holocaust and antisemitism—not as an abstract concept, but as a persistent and evolving threat to human dignity.
Within the UN system, the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations has sought to provide a space for precisely this kind of engagement—grounded in dialogue, mutual respect, and trust-building across communities. UNAOC’s work with Jewish organizations has been practical and continuous: listening to concerns, engaging expertise, and fostering cooperation aimed at countering antisemitism while promoting understanding across religious and cultural divides.
This collaborative approach was essential in the development of the UN Action Plan to Enhance Monitoring and Response to Antisemitism, which we successfully launched in January 17, 2025 under the guidance and with the full support of the United Nations Secretary General. The Action Plan was shaped through extensive consultations, in addition to UN entities, with Jewish organizations and other stakeholders including Envoys to Combat antisemitism. They have all been at the forefront of confronting antisemitism globally. Their input helped ensure that the Plan is informed by historical memory, responsive to contemporary realities, and focused on implementation.
A case in point, and as we are here today at the AJC headquarters, I was pleased last October to speak at Casa America at an event organized by AJC’s Arthur and Rochelle Belfer Institute for Latino and Latin American Affairs . I had an excellent conversation about combating antisemitism and the role of the UN with the Ibero-American Jewish Community.
In fact, my first public discourse on my role when I was newly appointed as UN focal point to monitor antisemitism and enhance a system wide response, was with AJC in the summer of 2020.
Distinguished guests,
The UN is certainly a microcosm of our fraught and divided global environment with diminishing issues of consensus. The UN reflects our divisions, but it also embodies our shared commitment to prevent global disorder.
Engagement with the UN does not require agreement on everything. It requires honesty, vigilance, and a shared understanding that walking away from multilateral spaces leaves them weaker and more vulnerable to misuse.
As antisemitism rises globally and as Holocaust survivors grow fewer with each passing year, our responsibility becomes heavier, not lighter. Holocaust remembrance must continue to shape education, institutional practice, and moral leadership.
That’s why The Holocaust and the United Nations Global Communications Outreach Programme was established by General Assembly Resolution A/Res/60/7 and it addresses antisemitism through Holocaust remembrance and education. The Programme works to ensure that the voices of Holocaust survivors are heard as a warning against the consequences of antisemitism and racism. Survivor testimony is shared each year at the annual observance at United Nations Headquarters in New York of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust such as the one that was held this morning at UNHQ.
I am also pleased to announce that despite budget cuts and zero funding from any sources, UNAOC together with the office of the Special Advisor for Genocide Prevention, we will launch an e-learning module on antisemitism in the first quarter of this year.
I also plan to launch a UN monitoring and evaluation working group to monitor and evaluate the impact of polices and measures to address antisemitism in line of the Action Plan.
Throughout the past years since my designation with this portfolio, I issued numerous statements condemning antisemitic acts. And from our 11th Global Forum in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I issued a statement condemning the antisemitic attack at the Jewish community at Bondi beach . I reiterated the condemnation at the closing ceremony of the forum which was attended by Member States, high level personalities, youth, academia, and media.
Therefore, I would like to reiterate my conviction that that the United Nations is an indispensable platform for global dialogue and action rooted in the UN Charter and International law. And the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations is determined to continue its work to implement its mandate given by UN Member States.
To conclude, to remember the Holocaust is to accept a moral horizon for our institutions and ourselves. Memory must shape how we speak, how we educate, and how we act when hatred resurfaces in familiar and new forms. Remembrance binds us not only to the past, but to one another—to vigilance, to responsibility, and to the unwavering defense of human dignity, today and for generations to come.
I thank you.