The Hungarian government should not be the next chair of IHRA

We, the protesters of Szabadság tér (Liberty Square, Budapest), invite those who believe in democracy to join us in opposing the Hungarian government becoming the next chair of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) by signing this petition and/or sending aseparate letter.

We have learned that numerous members of the IHRA are opposed to the Hungarian government succeeding the United Kingdom’s chairmanship, and that the Jerusalem-based Simon Wiesenthal Center has issued a statement urging IHRA members to reexamine Hungary’s suitability to chair the IHRA in 2015. Indeed, the Hungarian government has on a number of occasions breached its obligations under the Stockholm Declaration, which requires signatory states to promote education, accurate and appropriate remembrance, and research about the Holocaust. The appointment of an MP from the (Nazi-leaning) Jobbik party to chair the Parliamentary Committee on Education and Culture raises profound doubts about the suitabilityof the Hungarian government to chair the IHRA in 2015. Recently, 30 Jewish members of the United States Congress urged Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán to reconsider the erection of the Nazi occupation monument in Szabadág tér, citing Hungary’s upcoming chairmanship of the IHRA and the recent rise of the Jobbik party as factors that compound the issue.

The Hungarian government enables the promotion of extreme right views in the humanities, the fine arts, and the public education system by abusing the constitutional (two-thirds) majority it gained with a skewed electoral system to pass laws, regulations, and other measures. It has appointed right wing individuals, who belittle or question the tragic reality of the Holocaust and deny the evident responsibility of the Horthy regime (1920-1945), to lead events and institutions pertaining to the commemoration of the Holocaust Memorial Year (the 70th anniversary of the Holocaust). The Hungarian government has given free rein to members of the Hungarian Guard, a paramilitary organization that embraces Nazi ideology.

The so-called Occupation Monument (being erected in Szabadság tér) shows the true colors ofthe Hungarian prime minister and his government: they falsify history, which offends and dishonors the memory of hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jewish victims, and they undermine democratic institutions. Since the beginning of our protest against the erection of a historical revisionist monument in Szabadság tér more than two months ago, we have been subjected to retaliation, physical harassment and criminal proceedings by the police.

The vast number of organizations and individuals that have declined government grants dedicated to the Holocaust Memorial Year, for which they had previously applied, further demonstrates that the Hungarian government is not suitable to chair the IHRA.

We demand that the Orbán government, which has systematically dismantled democracy and the rule of law in Hungary and deliberately disregarded its obligations pursuant to the Stockholm Declaration, shall not be permitted to chair the IHRA nor be in charge of the commemoration of the Holocaust internationally.

The organizers of the demonstrations at Szabadság tér (Liberty Square):

Fruzsina Magyar

Andrea Zoltai

Imre Mécs

Gábor Popper

Gábor Sebő