The word “genocide” was first coined by Polish lawyer Raphäel Lemkin in 1944 in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. It consists of the Greek prefix genos, meaning race or tribe, and the Latin suffix cide, meaning killing. Lemkin developed the term partly in response to the Nazi policies of systematic murder of Jewish people during the Holocaust, but also in response to previous instances in history of targeted actions aimed at the destruction of particular groups of people.

A cantata entitled “Everyone, Everywhere” weaves passages from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights together with the words of human rights luminaries such as Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Eleanor Roosevelt.

The United Nations has been working in the Middle East region around the clock to de-escalate the Israeli-Palestinian crisis by engaging key actors and providing emergency assistance to civilians on the ground.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) provides assistance and protection for registered Palestine refugees.

Nobel Literature Laureate Wole Soyinka delivered an address in 1993 to the World Conference on Human Rights as a ‘special guest’ of the UN Secretary-General.

“Events of these last years have made the world painfully aware that the Palestinian people and the recognition and implementation of their rights are the key to any solution in the Middle East,” says then-United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim at the founding commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.

Writer, lecturer, political activist, and feminist organizer Gloria Steinem denounces violence against women in a speech at UN Headquarters.

Utilizing material from the UN Audiovisual Library, this production showcases a major force in the feminist movement taking her message to the global stage.

Hollywood actress Audrey Hepburn was a tireless advocate for children’s rights.

Soon after becoming a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador in 1988, she went on a mission to Ethiopia, where years of drought and civil strife had caused terrible famine. After visiting UNICEF emergency operations, Audrey talked about the projects to media in the United States, Canada and Europe over several weeks, giving as many as 15 interviews a day.

Genocides do not start with bullets or machetes, they begin with hate speech. 

Yokasta Valle is a five-time World Boxing Champion in both in both the International Boxing Federation and the World Boxing Organization—but the fight she is most passionate about takes place beyond the ropes where she uses the power of her punch to knock out hate.

Genocides do not start with bullets or machetes, they begin with hate speech.

The Holocaust did not start with the gas chambers, but with hate speech. The 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda began with decades of hate speech exacerbated by ethnic tensions. The Srebrenica genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina began with constant nationalist propaganda throughout party-controlled media channels demonizing the Bosnian Muslim population.