Lord Pickles leads UK delegation to antisemitism conference in Sweden

A UK delegation led by Lord Eric Pickles has taken part in the Malmö Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism in Sweden.

Lord Pickles was accompanied by Lord John Mann and Michael Newman, chief executive of the Association of Jewish Refugees, at Wednesday’s event.

The important conference was due to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to COVID-19.

In their pledge to the conference, the UK delegation promised the building of the Holocaust Memorial and Learning Centre in Westminster by January 2025.

There was also a pledge on the need for Holocaust education to enhance the learning about the Shoah amongst the UK’s younger generation – and a pledge on Online Harms legislation.

The forum recognised how last year would have marked the 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and the 20th anniversary of the Stockholm Declaration (which led to the establishment of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) and the designation of 27 January as Holocaust Memorial Day).

Fifty countries and thirty organisations were invited to the Malmö Forum at which King Gustav XVI and Queen Sylvia with other members of the Swedish Royal Family played a key role.

Sweden will chair the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance in 2022 and will use their chairmanship to follow up on pledges made at this year’s event

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić also spoke on Wednesday.