Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights advocate Tawakkol Karman delivered an address at the High-Level Roundtable on “Globalising Compassion: A Moral Framework for Justice, Equality, Peace, and Sustainability”, held as a side event during the 80th United Nations General Assembly.

The roundtable, hosted by the Satyarthi Movement for Global Compassion (SMGC) in partnership with the Permanent Mission of the Principality of Monaco to the United Nations, brought together global leaders, policymakers, and civil society representatives to explore how compassion can serve as a framework for international cooperation and peacebuilding.

In her remarks, Karman emphasized that compassion must not be reduced to a passing emotion but elevated into a driving force that shapes global policy and collective action.

“Compassion is not merely a fleeting sentiment toward the oppressed and deprived, fading without effect. For compassion to be genuine, it must serve as a driving and transformative force—this is how it should truly be,” she declared.

Karman underscored the urgent need to embed compassion and solidarity into governance, stressing that they must guide leadership decisions, inform public policies, and determine how societies respond to crises.

“Solidarity and compassion must transcend momentary emotions expressed only occasionally, before daily life resumes as if nothing had occurred. They must be elevated into a humanitarian strategy—one that guides leaders in their decisions, shapes government policies, and informs how societies respond to crises.”

Turning to global injustices, Karman drew attention to the plight of marginalized communities worldwide—refugees fleeing war, children denied education, populations devastated by poverty and terrorism, and voices silenced by tyranny.

She then delivered a searing condemnation of the ongoing war in Gaza, calling it a genocide unfolding in plain sight.

“As we convene this panel on the sidelines of the UN World Summit on Compassion and Empathy, a people is facing extermination before the eyes of the world: the people of Gaza,” Karman said. “A city of millions is being destroyed upon the heads of its own inhabitants. Horrific massacres of ethnic cleansing are being carried out with modern, highly destructive weapons, but also through cruel methods of siege, starvation, and the denial of food and medicine—methods of warfare not seen since the Middle Ages.”

She warned that the international community’s failure to act would leave an enduring mark on human history: “This is genocide—committed in broad daylight, under the watch of the world. It will remain an indelible stain on the conscience of humanity, a mark of shame that cannot be erased.”

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