UN General Assembly unanimously designates January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day
November 01, 2005

The United Nations General Assembly today (Tuesday, 1 November) unanimously adopted a resolution introduced by Israel and designated January 27 as Holocaust Remembrance Day. In doing so, the assembly urged the nations of

Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman

the world to observe the day so that future generations will be spared acts of genocide.

Co-sponsored by some 90 other states, the resolution rejects Holocaust denial and encourages countries to develop educational programs about the horrors of genocide. It also condemns
religious intolerance, incitement, harassment, or violence based on ethnic origin or religious belief.

Assembly President Jan Eliasson said the memory of the Holocaust must be "a unifying historic warning around which we must rally; not only to recall the grievous crimes committed in human history, but also to reaffirm our unfaltering resolve to prevent the recurrence of such crimes."

Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said the Holocaust "brought us face to face with the full extent of man's capacity for inhumanity to his fellow man," and that it served as a "critical impetus" for the development of human rights, the drafting of landmark international conventions on genocide, and the founding of the UN itself.