"Per legem ad justitiam: Through law to justice"
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"impunity no more, silence no more"
january 17th is officially designated as "raoul wallenberg day" in canada... he is only one of two honourary canadian citizens (nelson mandela being the other)... it was a great honour and privilege to have been able to attend the inaugural symposium held in his memory today and yesterday at osgoode hall law school... i admit that i knew nothing of the man until then, but after this experience, i can only hope now to have as much courage and impact as he had as one human being...
the conference was attended by a literal "who's who" of the canadian legal community... former supreme court justices, sitting appellate judges, senior partners of major law firms, government officials, leading scholars and academics, and students came from across the country to commemorate the wallenberg legacy and discuss pressing human rights issues of our day... also notably present as speakers were harold koh (dean of yale law school), richard goldstone (chief prosecutor of the UN International War Crimes Tribunal for yugoslavia and rwanda), and albie sachs (a current justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and a former political prisoner)... to say that it was an honour and privilege to be in the presence of such powerful people is a serious understatement...
again, as i've written before, this is not simply a matter of "look who i met today"... i am still in the "oh my gosh, i just met _______ " phase, but i can't help but think of how lucky i am to be in a field of study that allows me to interact on a very real and personal level with people who can make things happen... and while i'm sure that many of these great people demur at the idea that they are somehow put on a pedestal, i say it's an earned accomplishment given the kinds of things they've done and the ways they've touched people's lives...
volunteering at coat check, i had "first crack" at welcoming the VIPs and guests, amongst whom (his identity unbeknownst to me at the time) was a man missing an arm... only during his eloquent and moving presentation did i realize that i had been face to face with justice albie sachs... the conference finally came full circle and became jarringly real for me when i got to shake his hand — his remaining hand... the hand of a man who'd seen and experienced some of the worst human suffering and survived to help bring justice to others — as he was leaving the building...
"the next generation of leaders" -- supposedly to whom this symposium was aimed as part of their education -- was left by the minister of justice with these questions to ponder and challenges to fight for:
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Raoul Wallenberg (August 4, 1912 – [date of death uncertain]) was a Swedish diplomat and a member of the influential Swedish Wallenberg family. As a Legation Counsellor in Budapest, he used his diplomatic status to save many Hungarian Jews during the later stages of World War II, by issuing temporary Swedish "protective passports" and claiming the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. He also skillfully negotiated with Nazi officials such as Adolf Eichmann for the cancellation of deportations by playing on their fear of the consequences of having perpetrated war crimes. He is thought to have saved the lives of between 20,000 and 100,000 Jews.
Wallenberg was arrested by the Red Army on January 7, 1945, probably on suspicion of being a spy for the United States. He disappeared 60 years ago yesterday as he headed to Soviet headquarters in eastern Hungary. What happened to him since is not known — the official Russian version is that he died in captivity on July 17, 1947, but a number of testimonies have placed him alive in Siberian or Russian prisons as late as the 1960s.
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"All evil needs to flourish is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
"impunity no more, silence no more"
january 17th is officially designated as "raoul wallenberg day" in canada... he is only one of two honourary canadian citizens (nelson mandela being the other)... it was a great honour and privilege to have been able to attend the inaugural symposium held in his memory today and yesterday at osgoode hall law school... i admit that i knew nothing of the man until then, but after this experience, i can only hope now to have as much courage and impact as he had as one human being...
the conference was attended by a literal "who's who" of the canadian legal community... former supreme court justices, sitting appellate judges, senior partners of major law firms, government officials, leading scholars and academics, and students came from across the country to commemorate the wallenberg legacy and discuss pressing human rights issues of our day... also notably present as speakers were harold koh (dean of yale law school), richard goldstone (chief prosecutor of the UN International War Crimes Tribunal for yugoslavia and rwanda), and albie sachs (a current justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa and a former political prisoner)... to say that it was an honour and privilege to be in the presence of such powerful people is a serious understatement...
again, as i've written before, this is not simply a matter of "look who i met today"... i am still in the "oh my gosh, i just met _______ " phase, but i can't help but think of how lucky i am to be in a field of study that allows me to interact on a very real and personal level with people who can make things happen... and while i'm sure that many of these great people demur at the idea that they are somehow put on a pedestal, i say it's an earned accomplishment given the kinds of things they've done and the ways they've touched people's lives...
volunteering at coat check, i had "first crack" at welcoming the VIPs and guests, amongst whom (his identity unbeknownst to me at the time) was a man missing an arm... only during his eloquent and moving presentation did i realize that i had been face to face with justice albie sachs... the conference finally came full circle and became jarringly real for me when i got to shake his hand — his remaining hand... the hand of a man who'd seen and experienced some of the worst human suffering and survived to help bring justice to others — as he was leaving the building...
"the next generation of leaders" -- supposedly to whom this symposium was aimed as part of their education -- was left by the minister of justice with these questions to ponder and challenges to fight for:
- how do we combat intolerance at home and abroad?
- what is the principled approach to balancing rights and security?
- how do we combat and prevent mass atrocities?
- how do we deliver justice to the victims?
- how do we protect the vulnerable?
- do we practice respect for human dignity in our daily interactions?
--------------------
Raoul Wallenberg (August 4, 1912 – [date of death uncertain]) was a Swedish diplomat and a member of the influential Swedish Wallenberg family. As a Legation Counsellor in Budapest, he used his diplomatic status to save many Hungarian Jews during the later stages of World War II, by issuing temporary Swedish "protective passports" and claiming the bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. He also skillfully negotiated with Nazi officials such as Adolf Eichmann for the cancellation of deportations by playing on their fear of the consequences of having perpetrated war crimes. He is thought to have saved the lives of between 20,000 and 100,000 Jews.
Wallenberg was arrested by the Red Army on January 7, 1945, probably on suspicion of being a spy for the United States. He disappeared 60 years ago yesterday as he headed to Soviet headquarters in eastern Hungary. What happened to him since is not known — the official Russian version is that he died in captivity on July 17, 1947, but a number of testimonies have placed him alive in Siberian or Russian prisons as late as the 1960s.
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"All evil needs to flourish is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke
posted by þΛųL jØŋαŦhΛŋ @ 21:45
1 Comments:
At 12:01 p.m.,
Anonymous said…
Well, that could be true.
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