Declaration on Crimes of Communism

The Declaration on the Crimes of Communism is a declaration signed on 25 February 2010 by several European leaders, former political prisoners, human rights activists and historians who participated in the international conference " Crimes of Communism " in Prague.

Content

It requires, among other more lessons about communist crimes, prosecution of communist criminals through the creation of an international court within the EU for the crimes of communism, the establishment of a memorial to the victims of communism ( such as the American Memorial to the Victims of Communism ) and the reduction of pensions and benefits for communist perpetrators.

Martin Mejstřík formulated, inter alia, the claim: " Just as the crimes of the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials and the communist crimes against humanity must be condemned by an international tribunal ." Communism is not a philosophy, but a criminal ideology, so Mejstřík.

The conference

The conference was organized by the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes under the patronage of Jan Fischer, Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, and Heidi Hautala, Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights of the European Parliament, and Göran Lindblad, Vice President of PACE. The cooperation partners were the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, the Information Office of the European Parliament, the European Commission Representation in the Czech Republic, the Robert Schuman Foundation and the Polish Institute in Prague.

First signatories (selection)

  • Jiri Liska (ODS ), Vice- President of the Senate of the Parliament of the Czech Republic
  • Harry Wu, human rights
  • Nikita W. Petrov, Vice President of Memorial
  • Heidi Hautala (Greens), chairman of the Human Rights Committee of the European Parliament
  • Ivana Janů, Justice of the Czech Constitutional Court, a former judge at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
  • Joachim Gauck, since 2012 the Federal President ( Germany ) and former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Archives
  • Vytautas Landsbergis, former Head of State of Lithuania
  • Göran Lindblad, Vice- President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council
  • Hubert Gehring, Director of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation in Prague
  • Naděžda Kavalírová, chairman of the Association of Former Political Prisoners of the Czech Republic
  • Martin Mejstřík, former Senator
  • Pavel Žáček, historian and director of the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes ( Ústav per study totalitních režimů )
  • Władysław Bulhak, research director at the Institute of National Remembrance
  • Kadrinow Wasil, Director of the Bulgarian Hannah Arendt Center
  • Janos M. Rainer, director of the Institute in 1956 ( Institute for the History of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution)
  • Sjanon Pasnjak, Belarusian opposition
  • Marius Oprea, president of the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania
  • Pavel Gregor, former chief investigator, UDV (Office for the Documentation and Investigation of Communist Crimes )
  • Christoph Schaefgen, former Attorney General for communist crimes in the former GDR
  • Markus Pieper, Member of the European Parliament
Jan Fischer (politician) Erich Honecker
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