FORUM: “
United by Hope: Collective Action for Victims of Terrorism.”
International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism 2025.The Day is both a tribute and a call to action,
honoring victims’ resilience and leadership, while reaffirming our shared responsibility to uphold their rights. Only through sustained collaboration can we build truly inclusive, victim-centered responses to terrorism. United by hope, we can make a lasting impact. Together, victims are transforming grief into purpose,
building a global movement that demands inclusion, recognition, and lasting peace.The 2025 theme, inspired by members of the Victims of Terrorism Associations Network (VoTAN), emphasizes the hope that emerges when victims come together to transform pain into purpose.
United across regions, cultures, and experiences, victims and survivors are offering mutual support, amplifying one another’s voices, and driving collective action to raise awareness, influence policy, and ensure their rights and needs are placed at the center of counter-terrorism efforts. Follow the conversation with the hashtags:
#UNCCT,
#VictimsofTerrorism,
#21August,
#FindingHope,
#BuildingaPeacefulFuture,
#UNiteforVictimsofTerrorism.
EVENTS: On August 21st, at
10:00 am EDT, at UN Headquarters, a
high-level event will be held, organized by members of the
Victims of Terrorism Associations Network (VoTAN), the event aims to emphasize the hope that emerges when victims come together to transform pain into purpose. To mark the
eighth International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism, the United Nations will organize a pre-recorded high-level virtual event titled
“United by Hope: Collective Action for Victims of Terrorism.” The High-Level Segment will feature the Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres keynote message followed by opening remarks from the Under-Secretary-General for the Office of Counter-Terrorism, Vladimir Voronkov. The segment will also include a statement by the Co-Chairs of the Group of Friends of Victims of Terrorism, the screening of the Victims of Terrorism Association Network (VoTAN)
film, and a Global Minute of Silence honouring victims worldwide. Following the high-level segment, a virtual panel discussion will gather victims and survivors of terrorism from diverse regional and personal backgrounds to
explore how survivor leadership, peer-to-peer collaboration, and joint advocacy can strengthen global efforts to uphold victims’ rights and build more inclusive, resilient societies. Get the
concept note and agenda programme and
Register to participate!
Statement of the United Nations Secretary-General on the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism 2025; August 21st.On this solemn day, we honour the victims and survivors of terrorism everywhere – saluting their courage, acknowledging their pain, and reaffirming our enduring commitment to peace, justice, and human rights.
This year’s theme, “United by Hope,” reflects the strength of victims coming together to turn suffering into solidarity, and anguish into action.
Victims of terrorism are showing the way: supporting one another, speaking out, and championing the rights of all those affected.
I welcome the launch of the Victims of Terrorism Associations Network – supported by the United Nations – which fosters partnership, amplifies victims’ voices, and empowers them to shape decisions that affect their lives.
Governments, civil society, and the international community must match their courage – by upholding victims’ rights, delivering justice, and standing with them at every step of their healing journey.
United by hope, we can build a future free from terrorism, where all people live in dignity and without fear.
United Nations Secretary-General.
“One of the many ways people fall victim to terrorism is through the traumatic experiences of being forced to flee from their homes. Violence, forced recruitment, abduction and enslavement of women and girls, threats and extortion by terrorist groups can compel people to seek safety elsewhere in a country or even across borders.Displacement often occurs in fragile, conflict-affected and low-income States who have limited capacity to prevent it or provide humanitarian assistance and solutions to the victims.
Displacement has cascading impacts on human rights. While it may improve physical safety – though this is not always the case – it separates people from their homes, livelihoods, schools, health care, support networks and even family members.
Over the past year, I have met with many victims of forced displacement in
Somalia,
Côte d’Ivoire and
Benin and heard about their struggles to rebuild safe and dignified lives. Some had experienced repeated cycles of displacement, including due to forced evictions, disasters, and violence. Forced displacement has also occurred elsewhere in West Africa and in the Sahel, including Nigeria, as well as in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The legacy of forced displacement is still raw after recent conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. Tens of thousands of displaced people, mainly women and children, remain detained in
North-East Syria. Over half of the 2.1 million displaced people who have recently returned to Afghanistan were forced to leave by
Iran and
Pakistan, where they had earlier sought refuge without other countries sharing responsibility for them.
People are forced to move not only because of terrorist threats, but also due to security operations by States while countering terrorism and the climate of insecurity during armed conflicts. International humanitarian law exceptionally allows the temporary displacement of civilians to ensure their safety or for imperative security reasons. Regrettably, some States have forcibly displaced civilians as an illegal tactic of war, including Israel in
Gaza. Such forced displacements can also constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity and may even be an instrument of ethnic cleansing.
Counter-terrorism campaigns can also escalate into wider conflicts resulting in displacement. Recent examples include the
hostilities between India and Pakistan after India responded to a terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, and Israel’s
targeting of Iranian nuclear facilities partly under the guise of preventing terrorism.
The UN
Model Legislative Provisions to Support the Needs and Protect the Rights of Victims of Terrorism emphasize the need to equally recognize the victims of terrorism as well as of State human rights violations while countering terrorism.
In country visits, I found that internally displaced people, refugees and asylum seekers often face serious difficulties in accessing clean water, adequate food, decent shelter, quality schooling, livelihood opportunities, and land for cultivation or livestock. Many reported receiving little outside assistance and some lacked the documents necessary to exercise their legal rights.
Accessing healthcare is particularly challenging, with people being forced to borrow money to pay for their children’s treatment. There were significant unmet needs for the treatment of people traumatized by violence, including unacknowledged sexual and gender-based violence. Displacement also increases vulnerability to sexual violence, particularly for women and girls.
It was distressing to witness “lost generations” of children deprived of even basic education, seriously impeding their life opportunities and freedoms, and aggravating the risk of terrorist recruitment.
Some communities faced stigmatization and discrimination, including unfounded suspicions of associating with terrorists. Journalists reporting on conflicts, and human rights defenders, have also been threatened by terrorist groups and intimidated and arbitrarily detained by authorities as terrorist sympathizers.
Local communities reported being under stress from hosting displaced people, given population pressures, resource competition, and scarcity of public services. Host communities need to be adequately supported alongside displaced people.
Governments in low-income countries often make considerable efforts to support displaced people, including generously hosting refugees, aided by international humanitarian organizations and donor countries.
Many displaced people still reported receiving little outside assistance. The alarming global cuts to foreign aid, coupled with the United Nations liquidity crisis, are seriously undermining efforts to assist them. In Somalia, among the world’s least developed countries, aid cuts recently forced the country’s few rape crisis centres to close, excluding victims of conflict-related violence from this vital service.
I call on donor countries not to turn away from the victims of terrorism and counter-terrorism in their hour of greatest need.
Governments must also fulfil their responsibilities towards displaced persons in accordance with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, including in relation to the prevention of displacement, assistance during displacement, and assistance during return, resettlement and reintegration. The
African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (known as Kampala Convention) should also be fully implemented.
Finally, the past year has seen an alarming resort to counter-terrorism pretexts to summarily expel foreign nationals, including asylum seekers, in breach of the duty of non-refoulement and the prohibition on arbitrary expulsion. In the
United States, this has been carried out through the improper listing of organized criminal groups as “terrorist organizations” and abusively invoking war-time expulsion powers. Mass expulsions from neighbouring countries to Afghanistan were also partly based on unfounded security grounds.
Today, on the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism, I urge all States to recommit to the protection of human rights affected by terrorism and counter-terrorism, in line with the Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy. The international community must redouble efforts to assist displaced people, particularly in low-income, conflict-affected States, as among the most disadvantaged and marginalized of all victims.”
Mr. Ben Saul,UN Special Rapporteur on the protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism.
LIVESTREAM:
2025 Commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance and Tribute to Victims of Terrorism (21 August).This year will mark the eighth commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of and Tribute to the Victims of Terrorism. Amid the multiplicity of violent conflicts and terrorist attacks worldwide, this day continues to honour victims and survivors of terrorism, ensure their voices are elevated, raise awareness and highlight global solidarity. By amplifying the voices and experiences of victims, the International Day seeks to inspire collective action and empower individuals and communities to work towards a future defined by peace, solidarity, and resilience. This year's theme "
United by Hope: Collective Action for Victims of Terrorism", is inspired by members of the Victims of Terrorism Associations Network (VoTAN) and emphasizes the hope that emerges when victims come together to transform pain into purpose. United by shared experiences across regions, cultures, and communities, victims and victims' associations are leading the way; offering mutual support, amplifying each other's voices, and advancing collective action that drives change for communities, countries, and at the international level.
