More than half a century has passed since the discovery of the full extent of the horrors of the Holocaust. Yet the wounds have not healed. While all over the world many people work on education and reconciliation projects, others still invest energy in trying to deny what has happened. Those who work for the truth to be known deserve our strong support. This is why I very much welcome your initiative to organise this Conference, Prime Minister, and thank you for it. It is a great honour for me to address you today on behalf of the Council of Europe.

The great number of important personalities from all over the world who attend this Conference show the relevance of its main themes, education, remembrance and research.

The Council of Europe as the oldest European organisation which now comprises 41 member States on the whole continent, promotes European unity on the basis of shared values, in particular the respect for Human Rights. The questions you raise are therefore of primary importance for us: what can we learn from the Holocaust? How can we support education and research activities?

The Council of Europe was founded in 1949, in the aftermath of the Second World War. The Statute and the European Convention on Human Rights, adopted only a year later result from the determination to avoid a recurrence of the horrors of the Holocaust. Our very existence serves to promote the unique value of the individual, and his or her right for respectful and dignified treatment by fellow citizens as well as the State, guaranteed by the Rule of Law and pluralist democracy. This is both the basis and the aim of our organisation.

I consider teaching about the Holocaust, its roots and consequences, a crucial obligation. It constitutes a necessary part of every young person’s education, whatever their national and cultural background. We must be vigilant, Ladies and Gentlemen, because there are those who claim that « we have already heard enough about this ». We never will hear enough about it. I agree, however, that in order to sensibilise citizens to the tragedy of the Holocaust, imaginative and intelligent methods have to be applied.

On the basis of the work carried out by the Parliamentary Assembly and of the unanimous, very firm condemnation by the European Conference of Ministers responsible for Education in Kristiansand, Norway, in June 1997, of all attempts by negationist writers or extremist organisations to make the Holocaust look harmless or to deny it, the Council of Europe has undertaken a series of very practical measures, including teacher training, publications and multilateral research projects. A close working relationship with the Yad Vashem Museum is an important aspect of our activities in the field.

We are engaged in several international activities this year, including an anti-Semitism seminar in Vienna in spring and an international conference on the restoration of looted Jewish property which will be organised by the Lithuanian government in October. Also in October, the Council of Europe will host the European Conference against Racism and Intolerance in Strasbourg.

Learning and teaching history is much more than just relating events of the past. We must also encourage citizens, especially young people, to detect and fight the emergence of political ideas, which are in some respects reminiscent of the Weltanschauung laying the foundations for the Holocaust. In particular, we have to watch out for signs of aggressive nationalism and of all exclusive political concepts. Our societies must be open for difference and diversity.

Holocaust education is thus not just a topic for history lessons. Through both formal and informal education channels we have to actively promote tolerance, open-mindedness and inclusive political concepts.

I believe that a legal framework can provide a helpful back up for educational measures. The European Convention on Human Rights and the Framework Convention for the Protection of Minorities are two of the legal instruments the Council of Europe has developed for the protection of the individual’s social and political rights. I invite all countries, which have not yet adhered to the Framework Convention and other relevant conventions to do. They would thus signal unequivocally that they respect the rights of those of their citizens who are different from the mainstream.

Fear and greed are also at the basis of exclusive concepts of society. Social cohesion, both on national and European level, is therefore a key necessity, an essential complement to the promotion of human rights and dignity". We must prevent the emergence of a "two-speed society" characterised by a prosperous majority and a marginalised minority, creating a nearly unbridgeable gap between the two. A gap which leads to mutual mistrust and reproach.

We must reduce unacceptably high levels of unemployment in a globalising economic system. We must create a new sense of social solidarity and mutual responsibility in a society characterised by the pursuit of individual fulfilment. Above all, we must make sure that economic differences between citizens do not lead to different social and political rights. Only inclusive policies, which encourage the participation of all citizens, independent of their social status, in the political life of a country, can be successful.

Prime Minister, your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I unreservedly support the Draft Declaration of this Conference, not only with regard to educational aspects, but in particular also the homage the Draft Declaration pays to the victims of the Holocaust, and references made to our duty to never forget.

I shall make it my duty to bring the Declaration to the attention of the Ministers of Education of our member States, and to encourage them to include an annual Day of Holocaust Remembrance into school curricula throughout Europe, when they meet for their XXth Conference in Cracow later this year.

Today we best pay homage to the sacrifice and suffering of these victims, who went to their death amidst the denial of their very humanity, through our daily efforts to combat the tendency to forget and to deny, and to continue our struggle to guarantee respect of human rights everywhere.

We must keep their memory fresh, and seek and support ways, at political as well as educational level, to make sure that « never again » becomes and remains a reality.