25 years ago, the world failed more than 8,000 vulnerable and innocent people, who were the victims of prejudice, hatred and violence. We have a collective responsibility to remember the Srebrenica genocide. However, remembering is not good enough. In the Hebrew bible, the term for remembering is ‘Yizkor’. Yizkor does not only mean a cerebral exercise through which I retain information. Rather it implies as well, the action that I must undertake as a result of all that which I remember. It is with this in mind that I very much welcome this year’s theme for Remembering Srebrenica which is ‘Every Action Matters’.
Bearing in mind what we recall, those horrific events of 25 years ago, we now have a responsibility to engage in constructive and decisive action in order to pave the way for what will hopefully be a peaceful and harmonious future. But that will only happen through decisive action. It is therefore incumbent on each and every one of us to challenge and confront the ideologies and forces of fear and hatred which threaten our fragile world right now. If we do that, we will be paying the ultimate tribute to the victims of Srebrenica.
