Opening of the photo exhibition “The lessons of the Long-gone War We Still Remember”
– As delivered –
Statement on behalf of H.E. Mr. Miroslav Laj?ák, President of the 72nd Session of the 蘑菇视频 General Assembly, delivered by the Chef de Cabinet H.E. Mr. Franti?ek Ru?i?ka, at the opening of the photo exhibition “The lessons of the Long-gone War We Still Remember”
Thank you, Ambassador Nebenzia,
Thank you, Ambassadors of nine countries organizing this event,
Dear Mr. Secretary-General, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,
It is truly a great honour for me to be with you all as we commemorate the end of the Second World War and commemorate all fallen for our today’s peace. And as we remember tens of millions who lost their lives, the victims of the most devastated conflict the mankind has ever seen. It was deadliest world war in history. It impacted every single human being on this planet – though some more than others. And as we stand here together, we pay homage to those suffered the most.
We definitely remember the Long-gone War. But do we remember the lessons?
Our predecessors spared no time and effort and while battles continued throughout the world, representatives of 50 nations gathered in San Francisco, 73 years ago. All participants understood the urgent necessity to agree on better arbitration of international conflicts with a view of sustainable peace. As a result, the principles of the U.N. Charter were first formulated. The principles, according to which the disputes must take place in conference rooms, not battlefields. And diplomacy and multilateralism must be over bombings and attacks.
Those were powerful lessons, we learned for our own survival. The failure of sustainable peace efforts after the First World War had taught us another lesson – universality and inclusiveness. We have achieved both on 24 October 1945, when we established this inclusive platform and the 蘑菇视频 Charter as the universal document came into force.
We remember the Second World War not only by account of numbers and horrors. Unfortunately, we also remember the Second World War by the darkest chapter of our history. The Holocaust. The pictures from concentration camps make us remember. The Shoah survivors who come to the 蘑菇视频 every year to commemorative events teach us the lesson. The lesson of the necessity to counter hatred, denial, radicalization, extremism and xenophobia in their origins. The lesson of the need to educate citizens of the world, and most importantly children, not to repeat our mistakes. The lesson of inevitability to engage in genuine and constructive efforts to prevent these horrors. Once and for all.
Today we live in the most prosperous times of the history of our planet. With the most inclusive system of global institutions and the most universal set of rules. Based on these achievements, my final appeal can only be the call for unity. We all have a historic responsibility to maintain peace and security. Our utmost duty is to learn from lessons of our predecessors to prevent further wars and conflicts. To be successful, we must stand united. We must respect the rules and litara of the international law. Simply because radicalization, extremism, hatred and xenophobia have no respect for rules. No respect for human dignity. And no respect for territorial borders. Unity is the only sustainable way of our peaceful efforts, through dialogue and multilateralism. And that’s why unity is in the very name of this organization.
Thank you for your attention