CANADIAN FRIENDS OF UKRAINE

WELCOME CANADA’S SPONSORSHIP OF

UNESCO MOTION ON THE GREAT FAMINE (HOLODOMOR)

 
 

November 1, 2007

 

Canadian Friends of Ukraine welcome the news that Canada has co-sponsored a motion put forth by Ukraine calling on the 193 member countries of UNESCO to honour the memory of the victims of the1932-33 Forced Famine in Ukraine.

Today, in response to a question posed by Conservative MP James Bezan of Manitoba, the Hon. Jason Kenney (Canada’s Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity) rose in the House of Commons to confirm that Canada had co-sponsored a motion by Ukraine which was adopted at the 34th Session of UNESCO entitled “Remembrance of Victims of the Great Famine (Holodomor) in Ukraine.”

 “We are pleased that Canada is supporting international efforts to promote public awareness of this heinous chapter in modern human history,” said Professor Jurij Darewych, President of Canadian Friends of Ukraine in Toronto. The UNESCO resolution is an important first step, but “there is more work to be done here in Canada and at the United Nations,” he said.

Canadian Friends of Ukraine has urged Canadian parliamentarians to support Canadian and international initiatives condemning the 1932-33 Famine-Genocide. 

In his statement, Minister Kenney noted that the resolution “honours the millions who perished in the famine and acknowledges it was caused by the brutal communist dictatorship of Stalin.”

The motion put forth by Ukraine deliberately omitted the term “genocide”, since UNESCO’s mandate is non-political. According to Ukraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister and Chairman of the National Commission for UNESCO Affairs, Volodymyr Ohryzko, the primary goal of the UNESCO resolution, is “to promote awareness of the Holodomor by incorporating this knowledge into the educational programmes to inculcate forthcoming generations with the lessons of this tragic page.”

Ukraine plans to use the term “genocide” in the weeks ahead, when it presents a resolution calling on the United Nations General Assembly to recognize the 1932-33 Forced Famine in Ukraine as genocide. 

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For further information, contact:

Lisa Shymko  or Margareta Shpir