Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,

First of all may I thank the Swedish Government for the kind invitation extended to so many states to discuss this provocative theme and participate in a renewed awareness about the ever present threat of genocide; the conference held in the past four years have confirmed the traditional priority given by your Government, Mr Chairman, in fostering awareness and consciousness on important human rights themes.

When in 1948 the UN Genocide Convention was signed in Geneva following the cruel atrocities of World War II, few envisaged that during the course of the 20th century, acts of mass genocide would once again be committed on a large scale in different areas of the world; the Declaration which is being proposed in this Forum has the distinct advantage of emphasizing an important point; that action against genocide need not be necessarily on the macro level; that fighting the inner racism latent in most people is as important as fighting genocide world wide; for the seeds of genocide are found in intolerance of different opinions at home, the feeling of awkwardness in experiencing realities, beliefs, traditions and attitudes different from our own; I distinctly remember Gitta Serreny’s address at the 2001 Conference referring specifically to what she termed as inner racism as being the basis of the “them” and “us” syndrome which leads to irrational laws, measures, attitudes prejudices, manifesting itself in the most cruel acts of man against man.

I would like to mention two specific areas where action needs to be encouraged further; the first is the importance of inter faith dialogue ; far too often the holding of religious beliefs has been used as a pretext in the fighting of wars and the commission of gross abuses of human rights by one people against the other. During the Italian EU Presidency, action has been taken at EU level to foster this dialogue and indeed draft a Charter on such theme; since all established religions are peace loving in nature, and are only used as banners in conflicts by those who show lack of respect for religion by using it for political ends, I believe that this initiative needs to be encouraged, developed throughout the Union under the current presidency; Malta as a new member of the Union with effect from next May, and lying at the periphery of the continent and in the center of a turbulent Mediterranean Sea, has a special interest in such dialogue as a confidence – building measure in a region prone to conflict. Such dialogue is an important step towards thwarting the threat of genocide on this continent and around the globe.

The second area which I would like to briefly dwell upon is the reference made in the Declaration to our commitment towards “educating the youth and the wider public against genocidal dangers of all kinds through formal and informal educational structures”. It is abundantly clear that though no one is born prejudiced, no person is immune to intolerance and all of us are responsive to the social environment to which we are exposed. The acceptance of diversity, the importance of integration, are even more important in a tightly-knit community as the one existing in small nations like Malta; small nations have strong community ties; they also manifest strong sentiments of human solidarity; on the potentially negatives side, because of their modest size, smaller nations have a natural disposition against foreign influences; winning over the young through education e.g. educating them on the importance of refugee protection, has become a top priority in our education agenda.

On the legislative plane, Malta has ratified the Rome Statute in November 2002, and last month the International Criminal Court Act came into force providing for the first time for the specific crime of genocide; the new law also provides for expeditious extradition proceedings against criminal suspects in connection with genocide with an international arrest warrant sufficing without further ado for the transfer of a war criminal to another jurisdiction.

Finally may I add that the conclusion of this Fourth Meeting is not an end; it is a beginning. The example shown by Sweden in concentrating its efforts every year to discuss intolerance in general, and the holocausts past and present in particular, constitutes a beacon for the future in Europe and beyond; discussing this theme throughout the new Europe of 25 should never become a tedious repetitive exercise but a reminder of past events to prevent reliving the human tragedies which mankind had vowed again and again never to experience any more.