Ambassador Neil Holland welcomes the address by the Personal
Representatives, and underlines the UK's commitment to defending
freedom of religion or belief.
"Rabbi Baker and Dr Polack, welcome back to the Permanent
Council, and thank you for your statements.
The UK remains committed to defending freedom of religion or
belief for all, and promoting respect between different religious
and non-religious communities. Protecting and promoting these
freedoms is one of the UK’s longstanding human rights
commitments, and is at the heart of our shared OSCE principles.
Hand-in-hand with any commitment to protecting freedom of
religion or belief must come a commitment to tackling
intolerance, discrimination, and hatred – not only on the basis
of religion or belief, but in all of its repugnant forms. Our
‘Inclusive Britain’ action plan supports us in doing this through
its three-pronged approach of boosting confidence in our
institutions, advancing equality of opportunity, and fostering
greater belonging.
One of the greatest challenges we currently face on this front is
the chilling and unprecedented rise in antisemitism that we are
witnessing across the world. Sadly, hate crime has surged
globally since the barbaric attacks against Israeli civilians by
Hamas on 7 October. That one of the many terrible consequences of
this attack has been a wave of antisemitism is baffling and
deplorable.
The UK is clear: antisemitism is evil and has no place in our –
or any – society. We stand with the Jewish community, and we will
never waiver in our fight against the scourge of antisemitism.
The UK Government is proud to have been the first country to
adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s
definition of antisemitism in 2016.
In tandem with our work to tackle antisemitism, the UK is
committed to international co-operation to promote education,
remembrance, and research about the Holocaust. As one of the
founding signatories of the Stockholm Declaration, we pledged
that the terrible events of the Holocaust would remain forever
seared in our collective memory.
The UK has the privilege of taking on the presidency of the
International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in March
2024. The theme of our presidency will be “In Plain Sight”,
drawing attention to the fact that the Holocaust did not happen
unseen. It will highlight the nature of society that allowed the
murder of six million Jewish men, women and children, shine a
spotlight on all of those who had a part to play, and explore the
circumstances that led to the Holocaust.
We will focus on promoting remembrance of the Holocaust and
safeguarding the narrative for future generations. In particular,
we hope to reach thousands of young people across the IHRA’s
member states during our presidency, and help them to learn and
understand the truth about the terrible atrocities that took
place in their hometowns.
We must also recognise and address the continued rise of
Holocaust distortion and the impact of new technologies upon it.
During our presidency and in cooperation with the OSCE, we will
bring together a range of experts – from fields including AI and
social media. We will explore how to tackle distortion, including
how to counter the threats posed by deepfake technology and
disinformation online.
As you have both made clear, the consequences of intolerance,
discrimination and hatred are all too evident. Our OSCE
commitments provide us with the tools we need. We must,
together, tackle this scourge, and promote inclusive societies
that respect freedom of religion or belief.
Thank you, Rabbi Baker and Dr Polack for being with us today and
for all your work over the year."
