Europese ministers herdenken slachtoffers van totalitaire dictaturen (en)
During today’s observances, the ministers signed a joint document, the Warsaw Declaration.
‘I have submitted more than 300 motions to invalidate rulings issued in relation to people accused of committing so-called “political crimes”, but whose rehabilitation for various reasons has yet to take place. Another 200 motions have been completed and will be successively submitted,’ Minister of Justice Krzysztof Kwiatkowski said today. Together with over a dozen other EU justice ministers, he took part in observances of the first European Remembrance Day Honouring Victims of Totalitarian Regimes. They were held at the Warsaw Uprising Museum.
‘Although 20 years have elapsed since a law invalidating rulings against people repressed for efforts to restore an independent Polish state went into effect, there still remain many rulings whose invalidity has yet to be acknowledged,’ Minister Kwiatkowski said. The law envisages a special court procedure invalidating rulings passed down between 1944 and 1956. A motion in such cases may also be submitted by the Minister of Justice.
‘In this way I wanted to pay tribute to and restore the good name of individuals who in those difficult times were unjustly sentenced to death as well as their families,’ Minister of Justice Krzysztof Kwiatkowski said at the observances.
The date of the first European Remembrance Day Honouring Victims of Totalitarian Regimes is no accident. For many citizens of the European Union, 23rdAugust reflects the essence of 20th-century tragedies. It was on 23rdAugust 1939 that Hitler and Stalin signed a pact dividing Europe which resulted in the Second World War.
‘We want European Remembrance Day Honouring Victims of Totalitarian Regimes to be remembered and suitably observed. We owe that much to the victims of Nazism and Communism as well as to the Holocaust, a crime without parallel in the world,’ Minister Kwiatkowski said.
‘Preserving the memory of the victims of the bygone tragedies is an essential element of united Europe’s common legacy,’ he added.
During today’s observances, the ministers in attendance signed a joint document, theWarsaw Declaration. One of its main objectives is to point out the necessity of educating society in order to avoid the tragic occurrences connected with Nazism and Communism in future. More importantly, this document symbolises mutual understanding and solidarity in the context of the difficult and painful experiences linked to totalitarian regimes.
At the observances inaugurated yesterday by Minister of Justice Krzysztof Kwiatkowski and European Parliament Chairman Jerzy Buzek i, it was noted that an especially active role in memorialising the victims of totalitarianism had been played by the European Parliament. Already in 2008, the EP had proposed declaring 23rd August European Remembrance Day Honouring Victims of Totalitarian Regimes to commemorate the victims of mass deportation and extermination as well as to more deeply entrench democracy and consolidate peace and stability.
We should recall that on 2nd April 2009 the European Parliament had adopted a resolution on European conscience and totalitarianism, which stressed that without truth and remembrance there can be no reconciliation. The European Parliament’s resolution condemned crimes against humanity committed by totalitarian and authoritarian regimes and expressed respect for the victims of those crimes.
The European Council has also taken steps to preserve memory of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes. Adopted in December 2009, the Stockholm Programme was one of the most important programme documents of the European domain of freedom, security and justice. It states: ‘The European Union is an area of common values which cannot be reconciled with the crimes of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, including those committed by totalitarian regimes. Every Member State has its own approach to those questions but, for reconciliation to be possible, the memory of those crimes must be a collective and common memory for all of us as far as possible and cultivated by us all. Creating conditions that foster reconciliation is one of the European Union’s obligations.’
The European Commission has contributed to efforts to preserve the memory of the crime victims of totalitarian regimes with its report Memory of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes in Europe, published in December 2010. The EC considers it essential to fill in the gaps in Member States’ knowledge of the totalitarian past, particularly of the period in which Eastern and Western Europe were divided into two different worlds. Memory and knowledge of the tragic past and the crimes committed by totalitarian regimes should unite the nations of Europe.
On the basis of all those efforts, in June this year the EU Council of Ministers of Justice and Internal Affairs adopted Conclusions on remembrance of crimes committed by totalitarian regimes in Europe. In accordance therewith, all victims of totalitarian regimes should be justly treated and all the crimes committed by such regimes should be suitably prevented.The document emphasises the role of the European Union in facilitating, sharing and propagating initiatives that serve to preserve memory of those crimes. The conclusions have also appealed to Member States to, among other things, support educational and information initiatives which enlighten society as to what totalitarian regimes are all about.