2 August 2024
Michael O’Flaherty
Commissioner for Human Rights, Council of Europe
Video statement on the occasion of 2 August 2024, Holocaust Memorial Day for Sinti and Roma
It is my great honor to participate in these events commemorating the Holocaust, the genocide of European Roma and Sinti.
I first became aware in detail of the genocide when I visited the museum in Heidelberg some 10 years ago.
There, through the excellent presentations, I, too late in my life, but finally, became aware of this horror, this stain on European history.
500,000 people murdered in an attempt to wipe out an entire people.
Never again.
It is so important to deliver on Never Again, that we remember.
We must never allow the stories to die.
And the challenge of remembering is all the greater today as those who survived these horrors themselves pass away.
We need new ways to remember, new ways to commemorate, new ways to make sure that our children know what happened and with that sense of Never Again.
Of course, it’s not just about remembering.
It is also about recognizing the reality of today, the reality of shocking and unacceptable and, frankly, rising levels of anti-gypsyism, of patterns of hatred, discrimination, harassment perpetrated against the members of Roma, Sinti, and Travellers communities.
In other words, we are living in a context in which terrible things can happen again.
Now, as a dimension of our pushback, it’s vital to work in support of respect for the human rights of every member of the Roma, Sinti, and Travellers, wherever they are.
I pledge, as recently appointed Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe, to do all that I can, as one of my top priorities, to tackle anti-Gypsyism and to stand up for the human rights of the Roma, Sinti, and Travellers communities.
One last thing, my pledge is to work with Roma, Sinti, and Travellers communities, not for them, but to work in partnership, supporting you, working with you so that we together can deliver that better world in which we are all treated equally with respect in our great diversity.
Dziękuję.
Biografia
Michael O’ Flaherty is the current Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. He has identified the promotion and protection of the human rights of Roma and Travellers as one of the priorities of his six-year mandate, which he took up on 1 April 2024.
An Irish human rights lawyer, O’ Flaherty has served as Director of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency (2015-2023), as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Committee (2004-2012), as Chief Commissioner of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (2011-2013), and in various posts at the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, notably in setting up operations in conflict-affected countries such as Sierra Leone and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
He has served as professor of human rights at the law schools of the University of Nottingham and the University of Galway.
Statements 2024
António Guterres
United Nations Secretary-General
Helena Dalli
European Commissioner for Equality
Volker Türk
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ellen Germain
Special Envoy for Holocaust Issues, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs, U.S. Department of State
Michael O’Flaherty
Council-of-Europe-Commissioner-for-Human-Rights-
Terry Reintke
Co-president of the Greens in the European Parliament
Mehmet Daimagüler
Federal Government Commissioner against Antigypsyism
Cecilia Woloch
American Poet
Ruslan Stefanchuk
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
Markéta Pekarová Adamová
Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
Christian Mihr
Deputy Secretary General /
Managing Director Human Rights Impact
Annita Demetriou
H.E. The President of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus
Peter De Roover
President of the Belgian House of Representatives
Janine Wissler
Chairwoman of DIE LINKE
Florian Herrmann
Head of the State Chancellery Bavaria/Minister of State for Federal Affairs and Media
Saskia Esken
Member of the Bundestag, Co-leader of SPD
Christian Lindner
Member of the Bundestag, Federal Minister of Finance
Friedrich Merz
Member of the Bundestag, Leader of CDU