IHRA Meetings

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) will hold its second semiannual Plenary meeting under the Canadian Chairmanship from 6-10 October 2013 in Toronto, Canada.

For four days next week, experts and policymakers from around the world representing 31 member countries, four observer countries, and six permanent observer organizations will meet to discuss the Holocaust as a contemporary political issue.  The unprecedented character of the Holocaust will always hold universal meaning, and IHRA member countries pledge to strengthen their efforts to promote education, remembrance and research about the Holocaust.

IHRA Chair Dr. Mario Silva will meet with IHRA experts and governmental representatives to discuss a number of important issues, including a working definition on Holocaust denial and distortion, advancement of IHRA’s multi-year work plan, enhanced cooperation with permanent observer organizations, preservation of archival data, IHRA’s grant funding strategy, and outreach to countries around the world.  IHRA experts will also continue work on crucial topics such as antisemitism and Holocaust denial, the genocide of the Roma, and the Holocaust and other genocides. 

In advance of the IHRA Plenary meetings, the Canadian Chairmanship and the University of Toronto are co-sponsoring the international academic conference “Holocaust: New Scholars-New Research” on 6-7 October.  Over two dozen specialists in Holocaust research and young academics from 11 different countries will gather to debate contemporary scholarship from a variety of international perspectives. 

The purpose of IHRA is to bring political and social leaders together to learn from the Holocaust for the benefit of citizens of member countries and the international public.  IHRA and the Canadian Chairmanship look forward to further progress and concrete outcomes from the Toronto meetings.