A Holocaust survivor, Nobel Laureate, writer and human rights activist, Elie Wiesel was designated as a United Nations Messenger of Peace in 1998. He lent his compassionate voice throughout the years to numerous United Nations causes, such as focusing public attention on eradicating poverty and the atrocities occurring in the Darfur region of Sudan. He was a regular presence at the United Nations, including at the first-ever International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust.
Born in the Transylvanian town of Sighet, Mr. Wiesel was 15 years old when he and his family were deported to Auschwitz. He was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize for Peace and soon after founded The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity with his wife, Marion Wiesel, to combat intolerance and injustice.
Mr. Wiesel, who passed away on 2 July 2016, was remembered by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as one of the world’s “most important witnesses -- and one of its most eloquent advocates of tolerance and peace”.