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About human rights in Oświęcim
Ombudsmen from all over the world assembled in Oświęcim on December 4. They took part in a session marking the 60th anniversary of the proclamation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and International Human Rights Day. The honorary patrons were the President of the Polish Republic, Lech Kaczyński, and the Chairman of the European Commission, Manuel Barroso.
When asked about the choice of Oświęcim as the site of the meeting, Polish Ombudsman Janusz Kochanowski said that the intention was to show the total absence of human rights in the places symbolized by the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp. Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum Director Dr. Piotr M. A. Cywiński said that precisely here, in Auschwitz, it was possible to understand most fully how completely World War II differed from other wars. “Paradoxically, the roots of new postwar legal and political concepts, like the Declaration of Human Rights, the definitions of crimes against humanity and genocide, or the vision of a united Europe, reach back to the tragic experience of Auschwitz,” he said.
The invited guests, who included government officials from Poland and the European Union and figures from the worlds of culture and scholarship as well as Ombudsmen, convened in the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, where Professor Aharon Barak, former President of the Supreme Court of Israel, delivered a lecture on the history of and contemporary challenges to human rights. “The rights enumerated In the Universal Declaration and other UN conventions have been integrated into the constitutions and national laws of many countries. The Polish constitution itself reflects their influence. From Auschwitz arose the cry. The human rights regime, with the Universal Declaration at its core, is the response to this cry,” he said.
Lech Kaczyński, the President of the Polish Republic, sent a letter to the assembly. He wrote that “it was neither a straight nor an easy road from the realization of the simple truth that ‘all people are born free and equal in regard to their dignity and their rights’ to positive and universally respected human rights as a sanctioned norm. Humanity needed to pass through numerous dramatic experiences before finally giving legal form to the profound, essentially moral conviction, rooted in both the Judeo-Christian tradition and the heritage of Enlightenment thought, that human beings have inalienable dignity and worth thanks to the very fact of being human, regardless of their racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural identity, and without regard to their sex.”
During the official ceremonies, Janusz Kochanowski awarded the Paulus Vladimiri Ombudsman Award to Justice Antonin G. Scalia. The US ambassador in Poland, Victor Ashe, accepted the honor in Justice Scalia’s name. Ombudsman Janusz Kochanowski said in the presentation speech that “throughout his work, Justice Scalia has distinguished himself for the exceptional consistency of his judicial philosophy, as a result of which he has at times been the sole member of the Court to interpret the text and tradition of the Constitution faithfully.” Previous winners of the award “for courage in the defense of basic values and truths, even against the opinions and views of the majority,” include Father Tadeusz Isakowicz-Zaleski and the editors of Więź monthly.
After the ceremony at the Center for Dialogue and Prayer, the guests visited the Auschwitz Museum, beginning at the Auschwitz II-Birkenau site. They placed roses on the ramp where transports doomed to the gas chambers disembarked. They also entered prisoner barracks and climbed the main guard tower at the “Gate of Death.” Next, they visited the main Museum exhibition at the Auschwitz I-Main Camp site: block 4, devoted to the Holocaust, and block 5, with its collection of evidence of Nazi crime including human hair, prostheses, shoes, and suitcases with names on them. The Ombudsmen also toured the building containing the gas chamber and crematorium, and placed a wreath at the Death Wall in the courtyard of Block 11.
The day ended with a concert at the church of St. Joseph the Worker in Oświęcim, where the National Symphony Orchestra of Polish Radio in Katowice played Krzysztof Penderecki’s Seven Gates of Jerusalem under the baton of the composer.
The Oświęcim session was organized by the Polish Ombudsman, the Ombudsman of Israel, the Polish ministries of Foreign Affairs and Culture and National Heritage, and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum.
