24 January 2023

Dear Friends,

Special Adviser,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honored to participate in this ECOSOC initiative – and to continue the tradition of “firsts” between our two UN Charter bodies.

Speaking of firsts, ECOSOC was the first in 1946 to draft an international treaty on genocide.

The General Assembly then adopted the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, providing the first legal definition of this crime.

In 2022, the GA marked another first – the International Day for Countering Hate Speech – taking a stand against an accelerant to genocide: the unchecked advocacy of hatred, particularly through social media.

Today’s program offers a unique opportunity for Member States to define measures that can prevent atrocity crimes.

Dear Colleagues,

We know all too well that genocide refers to acts committed with the intent to destroy – in whole or in part – a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.

And we know from sad experience that it is a gradual process – the “tragic fulfillment of a program of intolerance,” as it was put in the Nuremberg statement.

The first warning signal that connects two-thousand years of genocide is in the words of Simon Wiesenthal: “Too much power in too few hands.”

Hate speech, dehumanization of “the others” and recurrent violations of their rights are all precursors to mass atrocities – the “canaries in the coal mine,” so to speak.

By now we should know that it is usually an explosive mixture of limited resources and the “us versus them” propaganda that detonates societies.

Dear friends,

Like a weed, genocide has roots in discrimination and artificially aggregated ethnic, religious or social differences.

The seedling of genocide breaks through when the rule of law breaks down.

Preventing genocide requires pulling out its roots.

It requires protecting communities at risk – including minorities and especially women and girls, who are always the first to suffer.

It requires championing inclusion and promoting economic justice.

It requires making and building peace.

Because all conflicts are the greatest man-made obstacles in the world.

“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” as the saying goes.

Education holds a key to transformative change.

By fostering an environment of coexistence, mutual respect, tolerance and cooperation, education can buffer societies against the threat of violent extremism.

It can shift mindsets away from blaming “the others” for all that is wrong in societies.

Dear Colleagues,

We have heard “never again” too many times.

A failure measured in lives lost.

Let us learn from the policies that fomented the horrors of the Holocaust – and tragedies in Cambodia, the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda.

It is incumbent on us all – across the UN – to engage with community and faith leaders, indigenous peoples, civil society, the private sector, academia, the media and others and to define transformative solutions.

There is a reason the 2030 Agenda explicitly includes the reduction of all forms of violence.

By making full use of the Voluntary National Reviews, Member States can help each other identify areas or opportunities to fulfil the SDGs and to hold each other accountable.

It must be clear that impunity takes us all further away from peaceful, just and inclusive societies.

I urge you to keep this in mind as we prepare for the SDG Summit in September and the Summit of the Future in 2024.

And especially  encourage you to use today’s deliberations to inform negotiations on the Global Digital Compact.

As the saying goes, we will be judged in years to come by how we respond to genocide on our watch.

The question will one day be asked: What did we do in 2023 to ensure genocide was prevented?

Let us answer again with a first – that we took a step, together, to end it.

I thank you.