“Our commitment must be to remember the victims who perished, respect the survivors still with us, and reaffirm humanity's common aspiration for mutual understanding and justice.”
-- Declaration of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust
IHRA delegation visits Poland
14.12.2016
At the Iasi Plenary Meetings, IHRA experts raised serious concerns about provisions in the existing and proposed legislation in Poland that could impact on Holocaust research. On the invitation of the Polish authorities, an IHRA expert working group visited Warsaw on 15 December to enter into dialogue with the relevant Polish stakeholders.
The working group was led by Co-Head of the Austrian Delegation to the IHRA, Ambassador Michael Baier, and included Senior Historian at Yad Vashem and member of the Israeli delegation to the IHRA, David Silberklang, Director for Government Affairs at the Simon Wiesenthal Centre and member of the US delegation to the IHRA, Mark Weitzman, as well as British litigation lawyer Anthony Julius.
The IHRA Chair, Ambassador Constantinescu, stressed “As a response to the concerns raised by the working group experts, I commended Poland for inviting our experts to engage in a dialogue with key stakeholders within the Polish government. Poland is an important member of the IHRA and, like the other 30 Member Countries, is committed to the tenets outlined in the Stockholm Declaration of the year 2000. I am confident that the visit can yield a positive outcome.”
The working group will meet with senior officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice and with members of the Parliament.
Image: Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Warsaw