University Forums: Educating to Remember

          According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), education is the starting point to build peace and promote the principles of dignity, equality, freedom and mutual respect among all members of the human family. The following is established in Article 26.2 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

“Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.”

• The Report of the United Nations Organization on the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban, South Africa from August 31 through September 8, 2001, states in its section regarding the Measures of Prevention, Education and Protection, that it “recognizes that education at all levels and all ages, including within the family, in particular human rights education, is a key to changing attitudes…” including segregationist behavior, and “promoting tolerance and respect for diversity in societies.”
• Additionally, it states that this type of education is a “determining factor in the promotion, dissemination and protection of the democratic values of justice and equity, which are essential to prevent and combat the spread of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.”
• Hitler and Nazi Germany promoted a racist ideology based on the alleged supremacy of the "Aryan" race which, according to them, was threatened by risk of contamination with other races they considered to be “inferior” or “parasitic”, an ideology that the Nazis implanted in Hitler youth and in schools. In addition to Jews, the victims of this Genocide included Jehovah's Witnesses, Gypsies, homosexuals, political dissidents, and the mentally ill, which forces us to conclude that their motive was not only based on race, but also on religious, political, economic, social and cultural factors.
•  Hitler’s rantings and government policy specifically against Jews led to their dehumanization before the German society, and given the magnitude and consequences of this, the Holocaust is now considered an unprecedented genocide of humanity.
• The Global Embassy of Activists for Peace also created the project Traces to Remember, with the objective to keep alive the testimony of Holocaust survivors as a way to convey to present and future generations the universal lessons of this regrettable chapter, whose nature and conditions divided history into a before and after.
• United Nations resolution 60/7 of November 1, 2005, “urges Member States to develop educational programs that will inculcate future generations with the lessons of the Holocaust in order to help to prevent future acts of genocide.”
• University forums have already been carried out in forty cities throughout Mexico during the months of August and September 2013. These were held in local congresses, theaters, universities, and cultural centers. Currently, these forums are being carried out in most Latin American countries.