News Releases 2022
“The Centre is calling on all WHC member-states to agree that it be moved to UNESCO headquarters in Paris.”
Paris, 15 March 2022
Your Excellency, Ambassador and Permanent Delegate to UNESCO,
We write to you as a member of the coming 45th Session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC), planned to be held in Kazan, Russia.
Our members and leadership are outraged at the still scheduled location for the next WHC. UNESCO’s responsibility is to protect World Heritage in wartime. The continuing violence in Ukraine is a factor in WHC’s obligations.
“The Centre’s participation in the Council of Europe Conference of NGOs ‘Call in support of the Ukrainian People’ is shared with other European and European-based international organizations, urged to follow suit!”
“Our Russian friends and colleagues must not be held responsible for the work of a tyrant. We are with them in their agony.”
Paris, 12 March 2022
The Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, congratulated Marija Pejčinović Burić, Secretary-General of the Council of Europe – a 47-State pan-European human rights organization – for the decision to suspend Russian representation rights, following its invasion of Ukraine.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Commends Council of Europe and...
Paris, 6 March 2022
Dear Madam Director-General,
I write to you as follow up to our appeal for UNESCO to operate its responsibility to protect cultural and religious heritage sites, endangered in the war against Ukraine.
Sent to (in alphabetical order): Nathalie Arthaud, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Anne Hidalgo, Yannick Jadot, Jean Lassalle, Marine Le Pen, Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Valérie Pécresse, Fabien Roussel, Éric Zemmour
Paris, 5 March 2022
Madam, Mr. Candidate to the Presidency of France,
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre is an international Jewish human rights organization with 400,000 members. It was founded in 1977, its headquarters are in Los Angeles. The Centre draws lessons from the Holocaust to analyse contemporary issues of intolerance. It is an NGO accredited at the United Nations, UNESCO, the Organization of American States, the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
Despite the horrifying context of the outbreak of war in Ukraine, a series of issues will require the attention of the future President of the Republic.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Poses Three Policy Questions...
Paris, 3 March 2022
The Annual CRIF (Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions) dinner is usually attended by the President of France. On 24 February, President Macron was unable to attend, due to an emergency European meeting on the Ukraine/Russia crisis.
The Wiesenthal Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr Shimon Samuels, discussed the Amnesty International issue and the ongoing BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign targeting Israel and the Jews, with French Prime Minister, Jean Castex.
Read more: Wiesenthal Centre Agenda with French Government...