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Mr. Marian Turski, Holocaust Survivor and Chair of the Council of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw speaking at the United Nations Holocaust Memorial Ceremony on 28 January 2019.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe

‘Humiliation was the worst’; Holocaust survivor at UN, asks world to act with ‘empathy and compassion’

More than seven decades ago in Auschwitz, Jewish teenager Marian Turski felt he “had no name, he had nothing, but a number” tattooed on his body. Speaking on Monday, at the annual Holocaust Memorial Ceremony, at United Nations Headquarters in New York, the 92-year-old called on the world to express renewed “empathy and compassion”.

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Secretary-General António Guterres addressing the annual United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Memorial Ceremony in the General Assembly Hall.
UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Bigotry ‘moving at lightning speed’ Guterres warns, as UN marks the Holocaust

Amid an “alarming increase” in anti-Semitism, International Holocaust Remembrance Day was commemorated at UN Headquarters in New York on Monday, honouring the memory of some six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust during World War Two, along with many other victims of what the UN chief called “unprecedented, calculated cruelty and horror”.

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Martin Griffiths, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Yemen, briefs the press at the Yemen political consultations in Sweden, on 10 December 2018.
Government Offices of Sweden/Ninni Andersson

Despite setbacks, ‘political will’ to end Yemen war stronger than ever: top UN envoy

The ceasefire in Yemen’s crucial port city of Hudaydah is “generally holding” and deadlines have had to be extended, but the UN’s Special Envoy said on Monday that “more than any time in the past” the political will remains to end years of conflict that has left millions on the brink of starvation.

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Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, speaks to the press after visiting the Bangladesh island of Bhashan Char.  25 January 2019.
UNIC Dhaka/Mohammad Moniruzzaman

Myanmar Government side-lining democratic reform, resorting to military era repression: UN expert

The human rights situation in Myanmar continues to deteriorate, as the civilian government fails to bring about democratic reforms and instead resorts to the kind of repression carried out under previous military regimes, said the UN human rights expert Yanghee Lee, speaking at the end of an 11-day mission to neighbouring Thailand and Bangladesh.

In Somalia's Puntland, crops and livestock have died in areas where there is no water following three years of failed rains. (January 2017)
UNDP Somalia/Said Isse

Climate change recognized as ‘threat multiplier’, UN Security Council debates its impact on peace

As climate change is increasingly recognized as a “threat multiplier” by scientists, political representatives, and civil society across the world, the United Nations Security Council held an open debate on Friday to discuss its concrete impact on peace and security, and focus on tangible ways to diminish the effects of global warming.

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