WUNRN
HOLOCAUST - HORRORS FOR WOMEN
Jewish women from the Mizocz Ghetto in the
[Photo credits:
Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi War Crimes]
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International
Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust - 27 January
2011
Statement
by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay
GENEVA – “The horrors of the Holocaust, perpetrated with such systemic cruelty
on such a large population over so many years, remain as painful to fathom
today as ever.
This is a day of remembrance for those millions of Jewish men, women and children, as well as thousands of other victims, including Roma, Slavs, disabled people, homosexuals, Jehovah’s witnesses, communists and other political dissidents whose lives were brutally cut short by the ideology of hatred of the Nazis and their allies.
The Holocaust should serve as a reminder of the dangers of marginalization
of particular groups in society. It should remind us that hateful words
have the ability to translate into hateful actions. The threat of genocide
still remains. It is the ultimate and most terrible expression of intolerance,
xenophobia and racism. This day is an annual reminder that we must act more
decisively at the first signs that a climate conducive to genocide is starting
to develop. We must be vigilant against emerging trends towards the
vilification of communities and pre-empt, through law, policy and education,
the prejudice that can in its worst forms lead to genocide.
And we must not underestimate the importance of bringing to justice, through
individual criminal responsibility, perpetrators of these crimes. The recent
international ad hoc tribunals, established to deal with genocide, war crimes
and crimes against humanity in Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, as well as the
International Criminal Court, owe a debt to the precedents set by the Nuremberg
trials, and several subsequent tribunals, which resulted in successful
prosecutions. In this connection, I reiterate my call to States to ratify the
Statute of the International Criminal Court, which is similarly built on a
clear commitment to put an end to impunity.
On this day, let us remember what happened in Europe in the 1930s and 40s,
reflect on why it happened, and take it upon ourselves to remain vigilant and
to stop discrimination in its tracks before its insidious seeds develop into
heinous crimes such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and ethnic
cleansing. While we can never compensate for the Holocaust, or do justice
to its millions of victims and their descendants, we can at least ensure that
by remembering their suffering, and acting on what we have learned, we can
mitigate the suffering of others today and in the future.”
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Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
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