Telling stories is resisting
Rushdie and Saviano in Stockholm
Roberto Saviano and Salman Rushdie said in Stockholm that "telling is resisting.. those who write have a huge responsibility... to cross the line of silence. This because in our societies you can also write, produce and scream, but it is when you cross that line and you reach many people that you are effective. Then literature frightens power, the criminal power. Then your book becomes a danger for that power. And you become a target".
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Politvovskaya trial disputed
closed doors measure criticized
The judge of the district tribunal ruling about the murder of Anna Politvovskaya decided to close the doors to the journalists and audience. This decision is opposed by both the members of the people's jury who say they have never required the court to establish such a measure and by Anna Politvovskaya's son. At this point the very compliance of the trial with the criminal procedure laws is considered as debatable by most experts.
BBC News
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A victory against slavery
a landmark verdict in Niger
On 11 November 2008 Adidjatou Mani Korau managed to get Niger fined by the Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States for failing to apply anti-slavery legislation. Despite this landmark verdict, according to Anti-Slavery International, the organization that backed Adidjatou in her successful lawsuit, there are still at least 43,000 slaves in the country.
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Miriam Makeba died today in Italy
loss of an anti-apartheid icon
Often defined as "the voice of Africa" and an icon of the anti-apartheid fight, Miriam Makeba died today in Castel Volturno (Italy) soon after singing for the anticamorra writer Roberto Saviano. She will be remembered for her music, commitment to human rights and generousity as she countervened medical prescriptions to help this other civic cause.
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Remembrance in former Jugoslavia
International congress in Vienna
The Balkans and Caucasus Watch, the Institute for the Danube Region and Central Europe and the Center for European Integration Strategies propose a two-day meeting on the relationship with the past and reconciliation in the Balkans. The congress will host leading European experts on these subjects and will witness the projection of three documentaries.
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Two convictions in Rwanda
for the 1994 genocide
Two acquittals and two convictions, this was the end result of the trial before the Kigali military court for the murder of 13 Catholic clergymen during the 1994 Rwandan genocide.
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Sacharov Prize 2008
awarded to Hu Jia
This year the Sacharov Prize was awarded to Hu Jia, the young blogger who has been fighting for civil rights with his wife Zeng Jinyan for many years, and who for these reasons has been sentenced to three years and a half of imprisonment. The Chinese regime reacted to the news with aversion.
EU Parliament news
BBC News
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Women's rights in Africa
the oppressed backbone of society
African women bear the weight and responsibility for daily life, but they are often physically and psychologically hurt because of local traditions, wars, dictatorships and all kinds of injustice deriving from the continent's exploitation. Many of them are reacting: from Sudan's Halima Bashir, fighting the Darfurese massacres, to Mathilde Muhindo speaking for the Congolese victims of rape. Here's a story from Zimbabwe. Over the next weeks we will present you with more stories from Africa.
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Prominent scholar criticizes Yad Vashem
Paldiel urges to honor Jewish rescuers
Mordecai Paldiel, the former President of Yad Vashem's Righteous Among the Nations Department, urged it to honor the Jewish rescuers from the pages of the Jerusalem Post. This could be a milestone in the Institution’s history.
See the article: "Why won't Yad Vashem honor Jewish rescuers?"
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Islam's Righteous
exhibition now in Rome
Stories of Bosnians, Albanians, Turks and Iranis of Muslim faith awarded the title of Righteous Among the Nations for saving some Jews during the Holocaust.
Promoted by the Cultural and Missionary Center "Pime" from Milan and sponsored by the Lombardy Region. Ushered in in Milan for the "Rememebrance Day" of 2008, it is now in Rome in the Monastery of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere from 18th September until 1st October and it remains at the disposal of schools and local administrations.
Exhibitions calendar
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Homage to Solzhenitsyn
Shimon Peres remembers the writer
The dissident writer, persecuted in his homeland during Communism and awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, died on 3rd August 2008 in Moscow and was solemnly buried in the Donskoy Cemetery of the same town.
Here we propose the memory of his kept by Shimon Peres, a former Israeli Minister of Foreign Affairs and the current President of Israel: "Solzhenitsyn warned me: Only self - restraint will save humanity", from Haaretz Presidential Blog of 9/9/2008.
See the article
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Memorial Ceremony for Bodil Biørn
On July 22nd of 2008
"On July 22nd of 2008, the Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute held the memorial plaque dedication ceremony in honor of the famous Norwegian missionary Bodil Biørn. Attending the celebration were the members of Bodil Biørn’s family traveling from Norway to Armenia. The commemoration also featured the presentation of a photo album of Eastern Armenia captured by Bodil Biørn. The ceremony was concluded with the placement of a soil brought from the tomb of Biørn in Norway, at the “Memorial Wall” of the Tsisernakaberd Memorial Complex".
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Exemplary 20th Century figures
Auschwitz and Kolyma never again
International conference, Bologna, 17/18 April 2008, Auditorium Regione Emilia Romagna.
Organized by the "Storia e Memoria" school network, in cooperation with the Committee for the Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide
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Israel dedicates a square
to Dimitar Peshev
Jaffa, Israel, 30 March 2008.
Ceremony in the presence of the mayor of Tel Aviv Ron Huldai and of the president of Bulgaria Georgi Parabanov to commemorate the man who rescued Bulgarian Jews (the main character in Gabriele Nissim’s book L'uomo che fermò Hitler - Mondadori).
During his official visit to Israel, for the first time Parabanov admitted the moral responsibility of his country, led by king Boris III, in the deportation of 11 thousand Jews from Thrace and Macedonia. He also acknowledged the role of Peshev, then vice president of the Bulgarian parliament, in rescuing Jews within his country, in comparison with the king, until now considered a victim of the events
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A tree
for Anna Politkovskaja
Sign the appeal, addressed to Letizia Moratti, mayor of Milan, and to Manfredi Palmeri, president of the City Council, to dedicate a tree in the "Garden of the Righteous Worldwide" in Milan, to the courageous Russian journalist assassinated in Moscow on 7 October 2006.
Join unalberoperanna@gmail.com
On the AnnaViva website all the initiatives to commemorate Anna
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