Proposition 51K2859

Projet de loi modifiant la loi du 8 août 1981 portant création de l'Institut national des invalides de guerre, anciens combattants et victimes de guerre ainsi que du Conseil supérieur des invalides de guerre, anciens combattants et victimes de guerre.

General information ¶

Authors

CD&V Jef Van den Bergh
LE Brigitte Wiaux
MR Philippe Monfils
Open Vld Hilde Vautmans
PS | SP Talbia Belhouari
Vooruit Magda De Meyer, David Geerts

Submission date

Jan. 24, 2007

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

antisemitism commemoration war racism xenophobia

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld N-VA MR

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

March 1, 2007 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mrs Detiège, we are listening to your report. If it goes as fast as the speed with which you get to the speaking room, it will go quickly.

Mr. Speaker, the main contributor of this bill is my colleague David Geerts, whom I thank for the initiative, and is co-signed by a number of my colleagues.

The bill aims to amend an article of the 1981 Act on the establishment of the NIOOO. It is intended to extend the task package of the NIOOO to take initiatives to raise public awareness of the consequences of intolerance, anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia. The NIOOO should therefore encourage education on the Holocaust by supporting institutions that keep the memory of the Holocaust alive.

The actions will be carried out in consultation with the Communities to raise awareness among young people of the dangers of totalitarian and racist ideologies. Therefore, a separate cell will be established within the Institute to promote tolerance, citizenship, democracy and respect among all people. The entire bill was adopted with 13 votes in favour and 1 abstinence.

I leave the floor to Mr Geerts.

I thank you. First Mrs. Vautmans and then Mr. Geerts. I only registered those two colleagues.

No one else? Madame of Wiaux? I’ll start with Mrs. Vautmans if you don’t mind it. Then you, Mrs. Wiaux, and then mr. and Geerts. I changed the languages a little.

Mr. Speaker, colleagues, I would like to thank Mrs. Detiège for her brief and concise report. Collega Geerts has indeed taken a very important initiative with the bill to give the NIOOO an additional task.

I am also very pleased that all the representatives of the democratic parties have submitted the bill. The applicants want the National Institute for War Disabled, Old Warriors and...

The [...]

Mr. Annemans, then you will have to change your party program.

Mr. Annemans, what we want is that the National Institute for War Disabled, Old Fighters and War Victims is commissioned with initiatives commemorating the Holocaust and fighting anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and intolerance.

Racism exists. Think of St. Nicholas, where people on the day they promise each other eternal love and loyalty, refuse to do so for a certain ship, because it happens to have a black skin colour. I wonder what kind of love, what values families will give to their children.

Racism does not belong in an open society. In an open society, no one has the right to exclude another person on the basis of race, gender, religion or ethnic origin. For racism, there is no excuse for open VLD, no one. The racist violence we have unfortunately witnessed over the past year, we think of Antwerp and Brussels, deserves an adequate response.

In addition, the biological clock ticks for all Holocaust survivors. 62 years after the events, the number of survivors who have consciously experienced the atrocities of the war is steadily declining.

Colleagues, in addition, recent research points out that it is not as well set up with the historical knowledge of our schoolchildren. In addition to a lack of factual knowledge, there was also an overwhelming lack of insight into historical connections.

Colleagues, if we no longer know our own history, we may also not learn enough lessons from the past and the more likely we will make the same mistakes in the future, the greater the chance.

The suffering of the many millions of people who died because of their faith, philosophical background and belief shows what extremist parties are capable of. We must ensure that these people do not leave their lives for nothing. Therefore, it is of the utmost importance that our society has the resources and capabilities to combat forgetting.

Several measures have already been taken. Let’s just think of the education, the initiatives that Defence undertakes. Let us think of visiting schools to concentration camps. Think of the Centre for Equal Opportunities and for the Fight against Racism, which has taken many good initiatives.

However, the work is not finished. Additional efforts are needed to combat intolerance, xenophobia and racism. It is the candidates of the democratic parties who want to encourage such initiatives.

We must make our democracy more resilient against all possible forms of social exclusion or racism. We, as Open VLD’ers, stand for an open and tolerant society, which seeks to take away the fear of the stranger. I see Mr. Annemans smiling. We will therefore fully support the initiative with Open VLD.

Mr. Speaker, I thank David Geerts for taking the initiative of this bill and for guiding its work; it aims to promote tolerance, citizenship, democracy and respect between persons.

Mr. Speaker, I would simply like, in my capacity as a signer of the proposal, to welcome this text, which, in fact, is placed in a set of proposals voted in the framework of Defence and which, in fact, concern the memory of the past.

You will remember the recent vote on the historical pole of memory, that is, the possibility of restoring a whole series of elements of the ancient heritage, which is the memory of what Belgium experienced at the time of the two wars.

After the “bricks”, here is the “spirit”! We have supported and will, of course, support the proposal of Mr. Geerts on the memory of the past in the fight against intolerance and racism. I will not hold a speech on racism, especially since – I insist – the work of the INIG will not do double use with the Centre against Racism and other organizations that have their place. He will work in the framework that is his, that is, at the level of memory, actions, battles carried out at the time.

Therefore, I welcome the bill initiated by Mr. Geerts and like all the other colleagues from the democratic parties at least, we will obviously support this bill.

I would like to thank Ms. De Meyer for her excellent report.

Mr. Speaker, I would also like to thank the rapporteur for her brief and concise report.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker, Mr. Speaker.

I am satisfied, because the bill takes away the support of all, democratic majority and opposition parties. I am also satisfied, because with the proposal, which is quite limited in scope, we give the National Institute for War Disabled, Ancient Warriors and War Victims a legal basis for taking initiatives to commemorate the Holocaust and to combat anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia and intolerance. In addition to its other tasks, the Institute can therefore make an extension here.

After all, colleagues, even in the present, modern time, intolerance is still celebrating high. There are even parties that announce that they will take an even stronger anti-foreign position. They do that with a joke that makes me remember the past. We all know the washing out of it. After all, who sows hatred will reap violence.

The purpose of the bill is just the opposite. By showing people and especially young people what the atrocities in Auschwitz, Mauthausen or, closer to home, Breendonk were and what led to them, we, the initiators, hope to prevent them from happening again.

We want the NIOOO together with other partners, in particular the Centre for Equal Opportunities and for Combating Racism, the Communities and the Schools, to take initiatives to, among other things, promote education and demonstrate what leads to intolerance. Please note that there should be no competition between the institutions. This is indeed a cooperation.

By looking back to the past, we hope to contribute to tolerance and respect in an up-to-date way. After all, if one does not understand the other, how can he become a friend? I may be able to express it in a different way by referring to a Gandhi statement: “You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.”*

Ladies and gentlemen, I will decide.

By establishing a separate cell, we now give the National Institute the legal possibility to take initiatives within the framework of the fight against intolerance. I hope that the Minister of Defence will take the necessary measures to implement the bill.