Finland to take part in the plenary session of the Holocaust Task Force organisation and the Holocaust Era Assets Conference
Press release 168/2009
22 June, 2009
Finland will participate in the plenary meeting of the international Holocaust organisation in Oslo, Norway, on 22-25 June. Finland has been an observer member in the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research (ITF) since June 2008 and aims to promote its membership candidacy in the forthcoming meeting. The achievement of full membership of the ITF is a gradual process that takes about two years. Finland’s membership of the intergovernmental ITF, which promotes remembrance, education and research of the Holocaust throughout the world, is part of Finland’s general human rights policy.
The Finnish delegation in Oslo will be chaired by Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Kari Kahiluoto from the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The delegation will include many experts from research communities, the Finnish National Board of Education, the National Archives, the National Board of Antiquities, and Finland’s Jewish Congregation. The meeting will examine the national review on the Holocaust issues drawn up by Finland in spring 2009. In addition, some Finnish researchers will participate in a seminar addressing the Nordic Holocaust history, preceding the ITS Plenary, in Oslo.
The Holocaust Task Force, which currently has 26 member states, was established in 1998 at the initiative of Sweden’s former Prime Minister Göran Persson. As a member candidate, Finland is also committed to the implementation of the basic principles of ITF which include establishment of a Holocaust Memorial Day, making the national archives dealing with the Holocaust period open for research and, in particular, organisation of Holocaust education in schools and universities. ITF’s Norwegian Chair, Ambassador Tom Vraalsen and Executive Secretary Kathrin Meyer visited Finland in May 2009.
Under the chairmanship of Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Kari Kahiluoto, Finland will also participate in the Holocaust Era Assets Conference to be held after the Oslo meeting in Prague on 26-30 June. The event that also ends the Czech EU Presidency is continuation for the conference organised under the same name in Washington D.C. in 1998. In Prague, the delegates will approve a politically binding so-called Terezin declaration, which addresses the status of property, religious artefacts and art confiscated by the Nazi regime during the Second World War; the social-economic status of the surviving victims of the persecution of the Jewish population during the Second World War; and issues related to Holocaust education.
Additional information: Counsellor of Foreign Affairs Kari Kahiluoto, tel. +358 40 481 9843, +358 9 1605 5172, e-mail [email protected]