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This press release was issued today by the Association for World Education:
ASSOCIATION FOR WORLD EDUCATION
(Case Postale 205 – 1196 Gland – Switzerland)
INTERNATIONAL HUMANIST AND ETHICAL UNION
Press Release, United Nations-Geneva: 27 January 2006. For immediate release
Call to bring President of Iran to trial before the International Criminal Court
The call by the Iranian President for the destruction of the State of Israel in defiance of article 2:4 of the UN Charter demands a firm reaction from the international community. On this, the First International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, we call upon States to invoke the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and bring the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran to trial before the International Criminal Court.
Three months ago at a Teheran Conference, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejed called for Israel to be "wiped off the map." He predicted that "very soon the stain of this disgrace will be purged from the centre of the Islamic world." He also warned all peacemakers: "Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury." In an early December speech in Mecca to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, President Ahmadinejed again insisted that the major problem in the Islamic world was "the presence of the Zionist occupation in the heart of the Islamic region," and that its "judicious removal will pave the way to the appearance of Islam’s power in the successful management of global matters."
A week later, in a televised speech on 14 December 2005, the Iranian president called the Nazi genocide of 6 million Jews a fabrication: "They have created a myth in the name of the Holocaust and consider it above God, religion, and the prophets…" On 5 January 2006, Iran’s state controlled television screened a discussion on "the myth of the gas chambers" and "the truth of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." On 15 January 2006, the president proposed the convening of a Holocaust ‘Myth’ Conference in Teheran.
We urge the international community to heed these words, and to note in particular the parallels between the ideological reference in the president’s Teheran speech to "the struggle between the Islamic world and the front of the infidels" and Hitler’s Mein Kampf (‘My Struggle'), with the ‘true Aryans’ pitted against the non-Aryans. Is the history of the 20th century’s bloodiest genocide to be repeated in the 21st?
The Iranian leader’s "direct and public incitement" for the destruction of a Member State of the United Nations – in total defiance of article 2:4 of the 1945 UN Charter – requires a firm reaction from the international community. Article 3 of the Genocide Convention indicates what acts shall be punishable, as defined under article 4. Among them is 3(c): "Direct and public incitement to commit genocide." States should be encouraged, on the occasion of this First International Day of Commemoration of Holocaust Victims to invoke article 8 of the Genocide Convention – and for President Ahmadinejed’s call for genocide to be punished by the International Criminal Court.
René Wadlow, Main Representative
David G. Littman, Representative
Association for World Education to the United Nations Office in Geneva
Roy W. Brown
President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union and Main Representative in Geneva
ENDS
For further information call:
David G. Littman: +41 (0)79 460 7185
Roy W. Brown: +41 (0)79 212 5603
Iran and the Palestinians have formed an axis with the destruction of Israel as an official goal. The U.N. Charter states that the primary purpose of the U.N. is to prevent states from taking action to destroy other states. With Iran and the Palestinians saying explicitly that their state goal is the destruction of a U.N member state, it will be difficult for the U.N. to avoid any response, without making it unmistakable that it is betraying its charter.
