A national leader and a foreign minister from two countries — Poland and Turkey — one Christian and one Muslim, spoke out about religious freedom, persecution and hatred during the opening day of the 46th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.

Poland’s President Andrzej Dudas told the council in a video address on Feb. 22, “The fact that for more than a year now, most of the attention has been paid for to combating COVID-19 does not mean that other problems have magically disappeared.”