NEW YORK – “The Power of One”. It is a great exhibit commemorating individuals who, by their strength of character and personal resolve, have made a difference in the spread of human rights and global peace. 

The exhibit is a special project of the Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI), a Toronto-based Human Rights organization with deep roots in the community of Holocaust Survivors. This year, on the 74th anniversary of the United Nations’ Declaration of International Human Rights, AGPI highlighted the contributions of Canadian John Humphrey to its drafting and declaration.

Thanks to the engagement of the Head of the Canadian Mission at the United Nations, the Hon. Bob Rae, AGPI placed the exhibit at the Curved Wall in the Conference Building of the UN, where it will be on exhibition for three days.

His Excellency Bob Rae thanked the AGPI delegation for its contribution, commitment and dedication. AGPI is led by founding Chairman Avi Benlolo, a familiar face in the movement to combat anti-semitism and discrimination against all peoples. One of his goals is to promote peace as part of that movement.

Mr. Benlolo has expanded the Board of Directors to include prominent members of other ethnic, racial and religious communities, like the Corriere Canadese’s own Donato Montesano, to achieve that end.

In the pics above, from left: Donato Montesano, Avi Benlolo and Howard Kerbel; Montesano in the hall of the UN Assembly and in front of a mosaic exhibited at the United Nations that invites us to treat others as ourselves (photo Corriere Canadese)

Because the weekend also marked the 84th “anniversary” of Kristallnacht, considered by historians to be the “spark” that led to World War II and the Holocaust, the Abraham Global Peace Initiative (AGPI) hand-delivered its first-annual 97-page report on the State of Global Antisemitism to the Office of the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

Along the route to its “tour of the UN” it made a special stop at the wall dedicated to illustrating the disparity in global investments made to instruments of peace as opposed to contributions to the betterment of the human condition.

In the pic below, the wall dedicated to the inequality of global investments: we note the trillion and 747 billion dollars a year for armaments and only 30 billion of funds for the assistance of the economic development of third world countries, 2 billion for the work of the UN and just 690 million for the promotion of Peace