Eric Pickles
Head of the United Kingdom Delegation to the IHRA
Member country since: 1998
Remembrance Days: 27 January (International Holocaust Remembrance Day)
Sally Sealey (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) – Deputy Head of Delegation
Gilly Carr (University of Cambridge) – Academic Working Group
Paula Cowan (University of the West of Scotland - Faculty of Education, Health and Social Sciences, School of Education) – Academic Working Group
Ben Helfgott (’45 Aid Society of Holocaust Survivors) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Ruth-Anne Lenga (Institute of Education, University of London) – Education Working Group
Olivia Marks-Woldman (Holocaust Memorial Day Trust) – Museums and Memorials Working Group
Alex Maws (Holocaust Educational Trust) – Education Working Group
Michael Newman (Association of Jewish Refugees)
Karen Pollock (Holocaust Educational Trust) – Education Working Group
Christine Schmidt (The Wiener Library for the Study of the Holocaust & Genocide) – Academic Working Group
Martin Winstone (Holocaust Educational Trust) – Education Working Group
IHRA membership has given the United Kingdom an international forum on which to progress critical post-Holocaust issues, while NGOs and academics have continued to deliver ground-breaking Holocaust educational resources, academic research and commemorative projects to newer audiences. The appointment of the UK Envoy for Post-Holocaust Issues, national commemoration of Holocaust Memorial Day across the UK, including government events, large-scale national research into teachers’ and pupils’ thinking about the Holocaust, and the taking of a digital copy of the ITS archive all demonstrate the UK’s firm commitment to advancing knowledge and awareness of the Holocaust.
A major focus for the UK is ensuring Britain has a permanent memorial to the Holocaust and educational resources for future generations and we are planning a major Holocaust memorial and learning centre next to Parliament. We are also proud to be the first country to have adopted IHRA’s working definition of antisemitism, announced by our Prime Minister in December 2016, and adopted subsequently by various councils and universities across the UK. We see this as an important step to tackle intolerance and show the UK’s commitment to taking a leading role in tackling hate crime.