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| Soviet POWs covering a mass grave after the Babyn Yar massacre, October 1, 1941. From Wikipedia - public domain. |
After a Russian missile struck Babyn Yar in Kyiv, the site of a memorial and mass grave of more than 100,000 victims of Nazi massacres, Ukrainian President Zelensky made this statement today:
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The General Assembly of the United Nations voted today on a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine: 141 nations voted for the resolution, 5 against, and 35 abstained. The map shows how the vote went:
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| Click to enlarge. |
This is a good time to review the founding principles expressed in the Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations:
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
- to regain faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
- to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
- to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
- to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
- to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMSAccordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.
By the way, have you ever read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights? A beautiful statement of fundamental principles all member states should try to live up to. Read it here.
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| Invasion map of Ukraine, March 2, 2022, 1800 GMT. Click to enlarge. |
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2 comments:
I really have no comment as the facts say it all. Humanity has not learned anything from past atrocities as we allow the present ones to continue.
Let me suggest that some parts of the human race have learned from past atrocities, while other parts just don't give a damn. The present horrors are just the sad continuation of the long story of mankind - a story both comic and tragic, peaceful and bloody by turns. Human beings have the capacity for great good and for great evil - the problem of how to increase the one and eliminate the other remains unsolved, and perhaps never will be.
Until it is, we just have to do the best we can in each generation with the moral choices that confront us, paying close attention to the lessons of history and the wisdom of enlightened minds.
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