At UN Briefing, IHRA Antisemitism Definition Called ‘Global Gold Standard’ in Fight Against Jew-Hatred

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) hosted a briefing in New York City last Wednesday on “efforts by relevant stakeholders to combat antisemitism and explore ways to develop a system-wide response on combating antisemitism across the UN system.”

One focus of the meeting — organized by UN High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Ángel Moratinos — was a presentation of the first-ever EU Strategy on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life that was adopted by the European Commission last October.

The Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) was represented at the gathering by Advisory Board member and former U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Elan S. Carr, who highlighted the vital importance of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, calling it the “global gold standard.”

“It has been transformative, and it can be transformative in the UN as well,” Carr noted.

He added, “Please know that the Combat Antisemitism Movement is your partner, and that we will work tirelessly with you, we will collaborate with you, and most importantly, we will support you as we together do God’s work of ridding this ancient scrouge of Jew-hatred from our midst, and thereby building that better, more just world that our children and grandchildren so deeply deserve.”

A full transcript of Carr’s remarks can be read here.

Honored to address the United Nations Alliance on Civilizations ⁦@UNAOC⁩ on behalf of ⁦@CombatASemitism⁩ in a special meeting called by High Representative ⁦⁦@MiguelMoratinos⁩. pic.twitter.com/MzKFYAA64p

— Elan Carr (@ElanSCarr) June 15, 2022

Organizations participating the event included the American Jewish Committee, B’nai B’rith International, Center for Jewish Impact, World Jewish Congress, and World WIZO, and U.S Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism Ambassador Deborah Lipstadt and European Commission Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life Katharina von Schnurbein were among the speakers.

“We want to use all available tools to call on our partner countries to actively combat antisemitism, while taking into account the IHRA definition as a basis for what is an antisemitic bias,” von Schnurbein said.

A full recording of the UNAOC briefing can be viewed below: