Mrs Christine Evans-Klock, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Ghana, has urged members of the global body to institute educational programmes to imprint the memory of the Holocaust tragedy in the minds of successive generations to prevent the recurrence of genocides.
They should also work towards mobilising civil society to educate the citizenry against such crimes.
This, she said, was critical in protecting the fundamental human rights of all peoples from abuse, as well as ensuring peaceful existence among member countries.
Mrs Evans-Klock made the call when she paid tribute to the victims of the Holocaust, at a forum, to mark the Remembrance Day, in Accra, on Wednesday.
The Holocaust is the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning “sacrifice by fire.”
Mrs Evans-Klock stated: “The Holocaust was a turning point in history, which prompted the world to say never again. The significance of the resolution is that, it calls for a remembrance of past crimes with an eye towards preventing them in the future.”
She explained that January 27 marked the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi Death Camp.
However, she said, the International Holocaust Memorial Day was to remember the six million people who were murdered or whose lives changed beyond redemption during the holocaust, the Nazi Persecution, and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
She said this was important to honour the survivors of these regimes and challenge all and sundry to use the lessons of their experience to inform the present generations to avoid any form of violation on human beings.
Mrs Evans-Klock said as a result of the crime, the General Assembly adopted a resolution by consensus condemning all manifestations of religious intolerance, incitement, harassment or violence against persons or communities based on ethnic origin or religious belief.
Dr Caesar Atuire, a Lecturer at the University of Ghana, Legon, said it was imperative for leaders to ensure peace and stability in their respective countries and eschew any acts of religious intolerance and abuse of human rights that would lead to violence.
He emphasised that the peace of a country facilitated development saying, “It takes investment to prevent human rights abuse”, and urged member countries to renew their commitment to prevent such atrocious crime.
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(Via: NewsGhana)
