The Delegations to the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA) all the way from South America to Australia will be discussing professional and political aspects of education, research and remembrance about the Holocaust to ensure that genocides never happen again. At this meeting, it is expected that North Macedonia will be confirmed as an IHRA Member Country after a process that has taken several years and Brazil will be granted observer status. Argentina, Hungary and Lithuania are regularly reporting on the situation of education, research and remembrance of the Holocaust. The first IHRA strategy is to be extended until 2024. The debate on the recommendations for teaching about the Romani genocide will be led by Slovenian expert Alenka Janko Spreizer. The Academic Working Group, this year headed by Slovenian Delegate Irena Šumi, will review specific commitments for Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism that were adopted at the Malmö Forum in October 2021. 

Information about different activities the countries are undertaking in education, research and remembrance of the Holocaust along with the pledges the countries made at the Malmö Forum will be discussed at the Plenary Meeting as well. Slovenia presented the activities carried out in recent years and gave pledges for the future work of the Slovenian delegation to the IHRA.

The implementation of “Recommendations for Policy and Decision Makers on Recognizing and Countering Holocaust Distortion” is also planned to be reported at the Plenary Meeting. In the case of Slovenia, these recommendations are currently being translated into Slovenian. Information about the new “EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life”, an important EU document that was several years in the making, is expected to be presented.

As to the current Slovenian activities, the “Yad Vashem” expert seminar that took place online in October 2021 was assessed as excellent. Slovenian teachers also translated into Slovenian an exhibition on the Holocaust that was arranged by experts in Jerusalem. It will be on display in schools and open to the Slovenian public in 2022.