In response to a recent parliamentary review of its human rights record, Australia has affirmed its condemnation of Holocaust denial.
“The Australian government continues to condemn the thesis which denies the existence or extent of the Holocaust committed by the Nazis during World War II,” said the response to the parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Trade’s “Review of Australia’s Efforts to Promote and Protect Human Rights.”
“The government will continue to guard against this aspect of contemporary European racism gaining adherence in Australia.”
The committee had made 63 recommendations, most of which were accepted by the government.
Other recommendations relating to the Australian Jewish population included the need for: * additional anti-racism legislation; * regular human rights reporting from abroad; * the investigation of Iraq’s human rights performance; * and the monitoring of anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union.
Diane Shteinman, president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, said the Jewish group was “intimately involved” in formally submitting its ideas to the government.
“We are particularly grateful when recommendations which we advocated and supported have now been accepted by the federal government,” she said, adding that “human rights are important to all Australians.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
