ITF Chair Ambassador Karel de Beer's Blog: New Post

Ambassador Karel de Beer, ITF Chair, writes a blog to share the work and activities of the Chairmanship.  To read his newest post, please click below.

4 July 2011

A week has passed since the first ITF conference under the Netherlands Chairmanship. We were lucky with the weather and Amsterdam is always a beautiful city to visit.

I look back at a successful conference and I wish to thank all of you, Heads of Delegation, Chairs of the Working Groups, and all Working Group members for your support, dedication and hard work.

My visits to all Working Groups provided a great opportunity to elaborate on my White Paper and to hear the views, wishes and concerns of the delegates. The discussions underlined my conclusion that more coherence in the ITF between Working Groups and Working Groups and the Plenary is a necessity if we want to give the ITF an extra boost in implementing the Stockholm Declaration.

My talks with permanent observers, like the Council of Europe, the UN, the Claims Conference and ESLI, were helpful in finding areas for cooperation and collaboration. I intend to have separate meetings with many permanent observers in the months to come.

At the meetings with Liaison Countries I was struck by the seriousness by which all countries prepare themselves for membership of the ITF. The important thing about the road to full membership is clearly the boost in Holocaust education, research and remembrance. This is, in my view, an achievement in itself.

The informal briefing for Heads of Delegation on Wednesday afternoon and the SIWG on Thursday were the "litmus test" for the Chair. How would the SIWG receive the analysis and proposals in my White Paper? I was happy to see that all delegations took the floor to express their views.  As a consequence we had an interesting and stimulating debate about the relevance and the future of the ITF. The SIWG gave me the mandate to - taking into account all the comments and suggestions made - turn the ideas in the White Paper into concrete proposals to be tabled at the Plenary in December.

Now, after a bit of a break, it will be time for me to translate the White Paper but also to work on a number of issues that we discussed. The first challenge that I see is the multi-year work plan and I know I will get the full support of the Chairs of the Working Groups.

Fortunately there was some room left for socializing and sightseeing last week. Some of you faced the rainy weather on Sunday and visited some memorial sites in the Netherlands. Luckily, the weather was perfect for the canal cruise on Tuesday evening. Last but not least, the reception in the Jewish Historical Museum and the concert provided the opportunity to meet representatives of many Dutch organizations. We have put some photographs from the meetings below.

I wish you all a great summer (and a great winter for our Argentinean colleagues) and I'm looking forward to meeting with you in The Hague in late November.