The speech by Gariwo Foundation President Gabriele Nissim on the occasion of “Democracy,” the 2025 GariwoNetwork plenary conference.
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There are two major challenges for the Gariwo Foundation, within this network of three hundred Gardens of the Righteous worldwide, which we wished to launch around the theme of democracy—a gathering that includes the participation of thirteen countries, the United Nations, and several renowned African athletes who fight against racism and for inclusive sport.
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The reconstruction of the United Nations from the bottom up in a torn and divided world, where the logic of war and confrontation between States and Nations is returning.
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A new ethics of democracy, presented in a values charter, aimed at responding to the democratic fatigue that leads people to abstain from voting and drift away from institutions.
This is the meaning of our meeting.
To reflect on democracy on a global level by revitalizing international institutions and becoming ourselves actors in democratic life. In this way, we will not be mere spectators of events, but guardians and innovators facing the democratic challenges of our time.
The great psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, survivor of Auschwitz and founder of logotherapy, maintained that the two worst ailments into which human beings often fall are fatalism and resignation—forces that make us believe that our destiny never depends on us.
The therapy for every individual in every era is to rediscover the meaning of life. When one imagines a future, a goal, and understands the horizon toward which to move, each person can find the inner strength to achieve their objectives.
It is the absence of dreams that paralyzes human beings. A football player, when stepping onto the pitch, even when facing stronger teams, always dreams of scoring a goal.
Without an objective—on the field or in life—one can never triumph in one’s existence.
When people see only the negative, the world becomes darker. Those who repeat obsessively that there is no solution to the war in the Middle East, the invasion of Ukraine, the crisis of democracy, racism, migration, climate change, become captives of negativity. This is fertile ground for populists, who offer simplifications and scapegoats.
Populists need not only enemies, but also resigned and negative people who will one day adopt their ideas.
Their power lies in presenting the impossibility of change as a form of revolution. Thus Trump proposes America First; Putin dreams of restoring the Russian empire; sovereigntists call for the end of Europe; racists advocate ethnic purity; fundamentalists impose a single creed; autocrats dismantle pluralism.
If we do not want to become prisoners of the status quo, we must imagine a great spiritual revolution, leading individuals to fill their lives with meaning for the future.
Today we lack a political and moral elite capable of conveying the meaning of our time. We miss Churchill, Brandt, Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Hammarskjöld, Havel, Sakharov, and Adam Michnik himself, who is here with us.
For this reason, I thank Adam for giving us, through his political life, a profound lesson in democracy.
The United Nations from the bottom up
After WWII, the UN was imagined as a place for resolving conflicts through diplomacy. Its founding moral imperatives were the three “never again”: never again war; never again genocide; never again crimes against human beings.
The UN was meant to be the most important democratic body, uniting humanity and enforcing international law.
Today this body is powerless, hollowed out by superpowers acting without oversight.
Instead of a shared belonging to the planet, the idea of possessing one’s land is returning—based on blood, religion, or historical mission.
This is visible in the Middle East, in Russia’s war against Ukraine, and in the rhetoric of new nationalists who reject human plurality.
This is why we at Gariwo believe that the Gardens of the Righteous, honoring those who fight for peace, prevention of genocide, and universal rights, can revive the original spirit of the United Nations from the ground up.
The Righteous embody the founding values of the UN, challenging unjust laws and defending common humanity.
We have therefore signed an agreement with the UN Office on Genocide Prevention, and we hope that one day the meetings of the Gardens of the Righteous will be held at UN Headquarters, and that the UN General Assembly will establish the Day of the Righteous of Humanity.
Why an ethical charter of democracy?
If one is not democratic inside, one cannot defend democracy. As Luigi Manconi argues, otherwise one risks being seduced by the strongman.
One may fight for a just cause—such as Gaza—and yet fall into forms of intolerance, as happened toward Emanuele Fiano. One cannot defend justice while seeking to destroy the other.
History has shown this: communists fighting fascism while preparing a new totalitarianism; the fall of the Shah leading to Islamic fundamentalism; political violence in Italy.
Etty Hillesum wrote that hatred is a disease of the soul and cannot be fought with hatred.
Today a new disease spreads hatred: extreme polarization, which turns every discussion into division.
Social media creates opposing tribes and destroys the idea of plurality. Politics stops being a healthy competition of ideas and becomes a struggle to seize power.
This creates the conditions for illiberal democracies like Orbán’s, or autocracies like Putin’s, with plebiscitary elections.
The antidotes
We must rediscover the pleasure of dialogue, even with those who think differently.
We must oppose every manifestation of hatred.
We must remember the commandment “do not lie”, because false information harms democracy.
We must be guardians of nonviolence and messengers of peace.
We must rediscover the strength of acting together, as at crucial moments in history—when diverse parties wrote the Italian Constitution, or in Poland’s Round Table.
Hannah Arendt wrote that politics at its highest emerges from a common space, a large table bringing together different men and women. “Plurality is the law of the earth.”
Today, at that table, must gather all those who aim to revitalize democracy from below and who see Europe as our shared destiny.
The challenge for Gariwo is for the Gardens of the Righteous across Italy and the world to contribute to this democratic path through education and example.
