Brussels, 10/05/2012 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament (EP) has put its weight behind the call made by leading citizens for a European Day of Remembrance for the Righteous, on 6 March every year, to salute individuals who challenged crimes against humanity and totalitarianism. A written declaration submitted by Gabriele Albertini (EPP, Italy), Lena Kolarska-Bobinska (EPP, Poland), Niccolo Rinaldi (ALDE, Italy) and David-Maria Sassoli (S&D, Italy) was signed by a sufficient number of MEPs to be adopted in plenary session on Thursday 10 May.
In the declaration, the EP notes the great moral significance of the Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem, founded by the late Moshe Bejski, to pay tribute to those who helped the Jews during the Holocaust. The EP recognises: - all the institutions that have honoured people who saved lives during all genocides and mass murders (such as in Armenia, Bosnia, Cambodia and Rwanda) and the other crimes against humanity perpetrated in the 20th and 21st centuries; - all those who preserved human dignity during Nazism and Communist totalitarianism.
The EP says that the remembrance of “good” is essential to the process of European integration because it teaches younger generations that everyone can always choose to help other human beings and defend human dignity. (LC/transl.rt)