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STORY: UN / VICTIMS OF GENOCIDE AND PREVENTION
TRT: 02:51
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 09 DECEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Tilt up, exterior, United Nations
09 DECEMBER 2025, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Annalena Baerbock, President, General Assembly, United Nations:
“Preventing genocide is a shared responsibility. That means every Member State. Every politician. Every diplomat. Genocide anywhere is a threat to peace, security, and human rights everywhere. As Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal said, “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.”
4. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Chaloka Beyani, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, United Nations:
“We have spent decades establishing prevention and protection in the international legal system. A system we see today under unprecedented attacks. Attacks that are accompanied by unparallel assaults on civilians, on the groups protected by the Genocide Convention, and on our very humanity. Whilst this is happening, we are becoming more and more indifferent. Have we not learned anything from the lessons of the past?”
6. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Chaloka Beyani, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, United Nations:
“We must critically ask ourselves whether everything is being done to prevent the commission of the greatest of crimes. The answer seems to be sufficiently obvious: more needs to be done. More efforts are necessary when serious allegations of the Commission Of The Crime Of Genocide are reaching us in this General Assembly hall, when risk factors and indicators of this crime point the foreseeability of the likelihood of genocide.”
8. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Chaloka Beyani, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, United Nations:
“When we have the tools to alert and act, prevention remains a question of political will. A political will which remains insufficient to protect the lives of 1000s at risk of genocide and those who have been targeted at this very moment. Stronger and more effective responses are possible if we are really committed to take the necessary steps, and those in position of responsibility play a critical role. The primary responsibility rests with Member States. It rests with you.”
9. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Chaloka Beyani, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide, United Nations:
“We will be with you, because it is our most profound conviction that if we remained united in our commitment to the promise of ‘never again,’ one day, we'll be able to open our eyes again in this very General Assembly and see a world free of genocide, our shared world, our common humanity.”
11.Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
Chaloka Beyani, UN Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide asked, “Have we not learned anything from the lessons of the past?”
Addressing today (9 Dec), the annual plenary meeting on ‘International Day of Commemoration and Dignity of the Victims of the Crime of Genocide and of the Prevention of this Crime,’ Beyani said, “We have spent decades establishing prevention and protection in the international legal system. A system we see today under unprecedented attacks. Attacks that are accompanied by unparallel assaults on civilians, on the groups protected by the Genocide Convention, and on our very humanity. Whilst this is happening, we are becoming more and more indifferent. Have we not learned anything from the lessons of the past?”
He continued, “We must critically ask ourselves whether everything is being done to prevent the commission of the greatest of crimes. The answer seems to be sufficiently obvious: more needs to be done. More efforts are necessary when serious allegations of the Commission of the Crime of Genocide are reaching us in this General Assembly Hall, when risk factors and indicators of this crime point the foreseeability of the likelihood of genocide.”
He stressed, “When we have the tools to alert and act, prevention remains a question of political will. A political will which remains insufficient to protect the lives of 1000s at risk of genocide and those who have been targeted at this very moment. Stronger and more effective responses are possible if we are really committed to take the necessary steps, and those in position of responsibility play a critical role. The primary responsibility rests with Member States. It rests with you.”
He concluded, “We will be with you, because it is our most profound conviction that if we remained united in our commitment to the promise of ‘never again,’ one day, we'll be able to open our eyes again in this very General Assembly and see a world free of genocide, our shared world, our common humanity.”
Also addressing the meeting, the President of the Un General Assembly Annalena Baerbock said, “Preventing genocide is a shared responsibility. That means every Member State. Every politician. Every diplomat. Genocide anywhere is a threat to peace, security, and human rights everywhere. As Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal said, “For evil to flourish, it only requires good men to do nothing.”
