To down­load this state­ment by the Expert Mem­bers of the Aus­tralian Del­e­ga­tion to IHRA in PDF for­mat, click here.

Late on Tues­day night, 4 June 2019, Aus­tralia was admit­ted to full mem­ber­ship of the Inter­na­tion­al Holo­caust Remem­brance Alliance (IHRA) fol­low­ing a unan­i­mous vote of the ple­nary in Lux­em­bourg. Aus­tralia is the 33^rd State to achieve full mem­ber­ship.  This has been a four-year process sup­port­ed by the Unit­ed King­dom, as Aus­trali­a’s men­tor, led by Lord Eric Pick­les.

IHRA is the inter­na­tion­al and inter­gov­ern­men­tal body pro­mot­ing Holo­caust edu­ca­tion, remem­brance and research and coun­ter­ing anti­semitism, racism and anti-Roma and Sin­ti prej­u­dice.  IHRA grew out of the Stock­holm Dec­la­ra­tion, an ini­tia­tive of the Swedish gov­ern­ment to ensure that coun­tries remem­ber and edu­cate their cit­i­zens about the Holo­caust and its uni­ver­sal mes­sages.

Over the peri­od of Aus­trali­a’s involve­ment, we have seen the adop­tion of the work­ing def­i­n­i­tion of anti­semitism by IHRA, the Euro­pean Union, and a range of nation­al gov­ern­ments and organ­i­sa­tions around the world, includ­ing the Nation­al Union of Stu­dents in Aus­tralia.

Now that Aus­tralia is a full mem­ber, with a seat at the table, we are able to ful­ly par­tic­i­pate in IHRA’s efforts to for­mu­late poli­cies, plans and pro­grams advanc­ing Holo­caust edu­ca­tion, com­mem­o­ra­tion and research. This is par­tic­u­lar­ly impor­tant giv­en the large num­ber of Holo­caust sur­vivors and their descen­dants in Aus­tralia. Mem­ber­ship also pro­vides a man­date to fur­ther enhance Aus­trali­a’s efforts in Holo­caust edu­ca­tion and com­mem­o­ra­tion with the sup­port through IHRA of lead­ing experts from around the world.

The Aus­tralian gov­ern­men­t’s com­mit­ment to IHRA enjoys bi-par­ti­san sup­port and is facil­i­tat­ed through the Depart­ment of For­eign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). The Head of the Aus­tralian del­e­ga­tion is Lynette Wood, Ambas­sador to Ger­many.  After the accep­tance at the ple­nary, she read a state­ment from For­eign Min­is­ter, Sen­a­tor Marise Payne, and con­veyed the Aus­tralian gov­ern­men­t’s appre­ci­a­tion of the sup­port of the UK del­e­ga­tion, led by Lord Pick­les, and the pas­sion and ded­i­ca­tion of the Aus­tralian expert del­e­ga­tion. She also not­ed that Aus­tralia was the first Indo-Pacif­ic nation to join IHRA.

The IHRA chair, Georges San­ter, wel­comed Aus­tralia bring­ing the fifth con­ti­nent into the organ­i­sa­tion and com­mend­ed Aus­tralia on its par­tic­i­pa­tion.

From l to r: Dr Steven Cooke, Pro­fes­sor Emeri­ta Suzanne Rut­land OAM, Dr Avril Alba, Dr Don­na-Lee Frieze, Amb. Lynette Wood, Lord Eric Pick­les, Pauline Rock­man OAM, Cia­ran Chest­nutt, DFAT, Sue Ham­pel OAM and Dr Andre Obol­er.

Con­tact
Peter Wertheim AM | co-CEO
ph: 02 8353 8500 | m: 0408 160 904 | fax 02 9361 5888
e: pwertheim@ecaj.org.au | www.ecaj.org.au