UN General Assembly
2022

These are haunting and horrifying words; and sadly, this is only one of thousands of stories that mark that we are living in one of the darkest moments since the birth of the United Nations. Out of the destruction and devastation of the Second World War, the United Nations emerged “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”, as the Preamble of the Charter of the United Nations begins. Never again war in Europe — that was the mission. Never again were schools to be bombed on the European continent. Never again were hospitals to be hit. Never again were cities to be cut off from food and medicine. Today we are witnessing all of these in Ukraine. The mass graves and torture chambers in Izyum are the latest signs of the utter brutality of this unnecessary and illegal war — all gross violations of everything the United Nations stands for.