United Nations Panel Discusses Newly Released War Crimes Commission Records
On 20 October 1943, 17 member nations established the United Nations War Crimes Commission to investigate and record the evidence of war crimes committed during the Second World War. For more than 70 years, access to those records has been restricted. They are now open to the public, following the release in July 2014 of a full copy of the archive to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
In observance of the seventieth anniversary of the end of the Second World War and the founding of the United Nations, the Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme of the Department of Public Information will organize a round table titled “United Nations War Crimes Records: Past, Present and Future”, from 1:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, 11 November, in Conference Room 1 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. The event will also be webcast live at http://webtv.un.org/.
Panellists will discuss the role and activities of the United Nations War Crimes Commission, which was operational between 1943 and 1948. They will examine the content of the records and access to them, their impact on the development of international law as well their value to and use by academics and students. Hua Jiang, Officer-in-Charge of the Department of Public Information, and Asoke Kumar Mukerji, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations, will open the event. Other speakers include Under-Secretary-General Adama Dieng, Special Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Prevention of Genocide; Bridget Sisk, Chief of the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section; Patrick J. Treanor, former member of the Office of Special Investigations, United States Department of Justice; Dan Plesch, Director, Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London; and Henry Mayer, senior adviser on archives, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Edith Lederer, United Nations Correspondent for the Associated Press, will moderate the discussion.
Registration for the event is open through Monday, 10 November, at http://bit.ly/UNWCC_event. Guests will be required to bring photo identification and pass through security clearance at the 1st Avenue and 46th Street entrance of the United Nations. Seating will be provided on a first-come, first-served basis. The event is also open to accredited journalists. Please contact the Media and Accreditation Liaison office at +1 212 963 6934 or visit www.un.org/en/media/accreditation/request.shtml.
The Holocaust and the United Nations Outreach Programme was established by General Assembly resolution 60/7 on 1 November 2005 to further education about and remembrance of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide. Its activities include online and print educational products, seminars, exhibits, a film series and the annual worldwide observance of the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust on 27 January. For further information, please contact Kimberly Mann at e-mail: mann@un.org, or tel.: +1 212 963 6835.