It’s also a moment to recognise the legacy of the Holocaust. That horrifying experience of authoritarian government and genocide paved the way for the proud international human rights framework we enjoy today. In the aftermath of the Second World War, the protections of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were set against the modality of conflict. Adopted in 1948, the Declaration laid the foundations for other formal human rights commitments. It directly inspired the European Convention on Human Rights; the continent’s own answer to a dark chapter of tyranny in which even the most fundamental freedoms were comprehensively violated. In answer to years of war and persecution which cost millions their lives, the solution of Europe – and the world – was to better secure individual rights in a bid to prevent such brutality in future.
Those values – protection from torture; respect for private and family life; free speech and so on – are the precious values we now hold dear, while some in Westminster and the media resort to denigrating them. They are freedoms which are truly fundamental; which no-one living in a civilised society should be required to forego. They are rights that millions died for and, with people all over the world still struggling for such values, they remain worth fighting for.
Given the experiences of the short-sighted “War on Terror”, during which Britain broke almost every rule of the human rights framework it had contributed so much toward, that battle remains paramount here at home also. There has been a knee-jerk turn to pre-charge detention and intrusive State powers, as if the lessons of two devastating global conflicts have been disregarded. So what better moment to stop and recall the importance of rights and freedoms than HMD 2013? We may never fully appreciate the sheer scale of suffering during the Holocaust. But we can ensure that the atrocities are never forgotten and that their legacy endures – so that the HMD pledge of “never again” can one day become a reality.
To find out more about Holocaust Memorial Day 2013, visit www.hmd.org.uk
