Hungary officially handed over the Chairmanship of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) to Romania for the next 12 months on Tuesday. The ceremony was held in Berlin, at the headquarters of the Permanent Office of the international organisation.
The Chairmanship was a great honour for Hungary, and the Hungarian Chairmanship was a successful period in the history of the organisation whose mission it is to preserve the memory of the Holocaust and to work towards promoting the cause of scientific research and education related to the Holocaust, Szabolcs Takács, State Secretary for EU Affairs at the Prime Minister’s Office told the Hungarian News Agency MTI after the event. Mr Takács was in charge of the Hungarian Chairmanship as a ministerial commissioner.
He highlighted: they have successfully enhanced the „transparency” and wider recognition of IHRA, and the Hungarian Chairmanship has managed to achieve that the EU’ s new data protection regulation should not unduly restrict access to archive sources related to the Holocaust. According to the Permanent Office, Member Countries and experts in the field, this is IHRA’s greatest achievement to date because this was the first time that the organisation was able to enforce its own criteria vis-a-vis another international organisation, Mr Takács pointed out.
The Hungarian Chairmanship sought to promote the wider recognition and the attainment of the goals of IHRA with more than 100 events, exhibitions, scientific conferences, memorial events, book presentations, concerts and other programmes in locations ranging from Canada to Australia. During the course of its Hungarian Chairmanship, the organisation was also represented at prominent political events: IHRA was invited for the first time to attend the General Assembly of the United Nations, and was represented at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
It points to the significance of the work done by IHRA that the upsurge of a „new type” of anti-Semitism may be observed increasingly in a number of European countries which also poses a „security risk”, Mr Takács said. Anti-Semitism also manifests itself in bloody attacks in Western-Europe, while in the central and eastern parts of Europe it primarily spreads on the Internet. This is one of the reasons why the Hungarian Chairmanship organised a conference on the Holocaust in common speech last November in Budapest in cooperation with the Committee on Antisemitism and Holocaust Denial of IHRA.
Remembrance of the Roma Holocaust, too, formed an essential part of the programmes of the Hungarian Chairmanship which succeeded in elevating this cause to a higher level within the activities of IHRA. Hungary is setting a good example in this department as the topic of the Roma genocide has been integrated into the national curriculum, while this is not yet the case in Germany, Mr Takács said.
The Romanian Chairmanship, too, will carry on the cause of the remembrance of the Roma Holocaust, and will receive all possible help to this end from Hungary. Hungary will further initiate with the new Chair of IHRA that, based on the model of the Hungarian-Serbian cooperation formed with a view to the refurbishment of the Szabadka Synagogue, which is recorded as Europe’s second largest synagogue, the two countries should jointly renovate the synagogue in Kolozsvár, he added.
Regarding the Romanian Chairmanship programme disclosed at the handover ceremony, Mr Takács highlighted: it is an important message that Romania, too, intends to face its past, and wishes to comprehensively uncover a „dark period” of its history, the period of the beginning of the forties.
As concerns the organisational development of IHRA, the State Secretary said that two new observer countries joined during the Hungarian Chairmanship: Australia and Monaco, while the Vatican designated a nominated representative for the first time to attend the IHRA Plenary Meeting held in June in Budapest.
Regarding the challenges IHRA is to face, Mr Takács said that awareness of the existence of the organisation must be further raised, in particular, among young people, and it is necessary to look into the efficiency of the work done to determine to what extent IHRA’s educational principles shape society. At the same time, it will also be necessary to decide on how to coordinate the cooperation of the 31 Member Countries and 10 Observer Countries within the inter-governmental organisation.
Mr Takács pointed out that, in addition to supervising the Hungarian Chairmanship, he also represented the policy of the Hungarian Government related to the Holocaust as head of delegation, „and as part of this, the policy of zero tolerance towards anti-Semitism and every form of hatred”.
He stressed: the recognition Hungary earned for its activities during the Hungarian Chairmanship demonstrated that the Hungarian Government „takes the work of IHRA seriously, and also took the Chairmanship seriously”.
IHRA was established at the initiative of former Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson in 2000. Hungary has been a full member of the organisation since 2000, and held the Chairmanship for the second time now after 2006.