Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage and Holocaust Survivor Simone Veil to Address Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education and Remembrance

Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage will deliver the keynote address at the plenary session of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research on Wednesday, May 14, at 10:00 a.m. in the Loy Henderson auditorium. A speech by Mme. Simone Veil will follow. Mme. Veil was first President of the European Parliament in 1979. A former Minister of Social Affairs, Health, and Urban Affairs in France, she currently sits on the Constitutional Court of France and is President of the Fondation pour la Mémoire de la Shoah.

The Task Force consists of representatives of government and non-governmental organizations. Its purpose is to place political and social leaders’ support behind the need for Holocaust education, remembrance, and research both nationally and internationally. The Task Force has also been the primary venue wherein countries joining NATO and other European institutions have cooperated to face up to the past and take difficult decisions about coming to terms with it.

Initiated by Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson in 1998, the Task Force currently has fourteen member countries: Argentina, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Professor Yehuda Bauer, former chair of the Yad Vashem Research Institute in Jerusalem, is the Task Force’s advisor. Delegations will attend as "observers" from Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Luxembourg, and Slovakia, all of which are developing projects with the support of the Task Force or are aspiring members.

The United States is jointly represented on the Task Force by the Department of State, the Association of Holocaust Organizations, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. The United States assumed annual chairmanship of the Task Force from France in February, 2003, and the Washington, D.C. meeting is the first of two to be hosted by the United States during the year.

Media representatives may cover the Deputy Secretary's address upon presentation of one of the following: (1) A U.S. Government-issued identification card (Department of State, White House, Congress, Department of Defense, or Foreign Press Center); (2) a photo ID issued by the employing media organization; or (3) a letter on official letterhead from employing organization verifying their employment as a journalist, accompanied by an official photo ID (valid driver's license or passport).

Media representatives should use the 23rd Street entrance (between D and C Streets) and arrive at least 10 minutes before the scheduled start of the address.