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<\/p>In his paper Prof. Dan Plesch, SOAS, University of London, stressed the importance of self-management for refugees as a way to empower and enable displaced persons to actively contribute to their future \u2013 an idea which was later built on by Mr Mukesh Kapila, CBE, Refugee Crisis Group, University of Manchester. \u201cThat refugees should elect and run their own camps may seem like a radical idea today, but it was the foundation on which the UNRRA camps operated,\u201d Prof. Plesch said. ROME, 17 February 2017 \u2013 The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) conference in cooperation with the Holy See \u201cRefugee Policies from 1933 until Today: Challenges and Responsibilities\u201d concluded this evening at the Palazzo della Cancelleria in Rome. The conference brought together international experts to explore the topic of refugee policies, and their impact, from the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20250,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20249","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hdke.hu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Prof. Plesch also showed documents from the UN War Crimes Commission outlining the crimes of the Holocaust filed as early at 1944 and urged the collection of evidence from refugees.
The important role of the Holocaust experience in the foundation of legal human rights protection and the need for a common approach to the current refugee situation recurred throughout the conference: \u201cIt is an illusion to think that individual member states can handle migration through national action. There is a need to harmonize migration and asylum regulation,\u201d Said Mr Stefan Lehne, Carnegie Foundation.
Ms. Kristina Touzenis, Head of the International Migration Law Unit, International Organization for Migration, built on the idea of the responsibility of states saying \u201cin simple words, you need to ask yourself \u201cWould you like to be treated the way refugees are being treated. If the answer is no, something is wrong in the implementation of the legal protections. There is a need to move towards better implementation of existing tools \u2013 the framework is already there.\u201d
The conference was closed by Mr. Stephane Jaquemet, Regional Representative for Southern Europe at UNHCR and Prof. Michael O\u2019Flaherty, Director of the European Agency for Fundamental Rights.
Mr Jaquemet began by stressing that to understand today and tomorrow\u2019s challenges, it was not only important to have a historical perspective but also to remember because \u201cthrough remembering we can build an antidote against hate.\u201d He also made clear that \u201cindifference kills\u201d as it was in the face of indifference that criminal acts could flourish.
\u201cThe Holocaust was characterized by the failure to protect. I am glad that this conference has put us on the path of solidarity which is fundamental in responding to the refugee situation\u201d Mr Jaquemet said.
Prof. Michael O’Flaherty commended the idea of learning from the past to inform the future, encouraging policy-makers to reflect on the events of history and also to learn from countries who have a great deal of expertise in responding to and integrating refugees. He, too, stressed the value of the Human Rights system: \u201cWe did not build up the framework of international law after the Second World War to simply ignore it now when we are facing a humanitarian crisis of this scale. Let us shame those who commit illegalities and immoralities and prosecute hate speech and hate crime.\u201d
Prof. O\u2019Flaherty ended the conference on a hopeful note, stressing that he was impressed by the \u201cremarkable good practices, the fundamental goodwill and the astonishing achievement that is the Human Rights system.\u201d
In closing Prof. O’Flaherty said \u201cI believe that the Human Rights system we have constructed is resilient and will provide the answers we need.\u201d
Over the next months the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance will further discuss the outcomes and suggestions from the conference and will produce a supporting conference report. A publication of the conference papers is planned for 2017.
More information about the event, with photos<\/a> on the conference page<\/a> at IHRA’s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"