March 3, 2022
Celebrations for the new Righteous
Garden of the Righteous Worldwide at Monte Stella hill and Palazzo Marino in Milan
In 2012, the European Parliament accepted Gariwo's appeal to establish the European Day of the Righteous on March 6. After ten years, the Day will be celebrated in more than 150 Gardens of the Righteous created all over the world thanks to the work of Gariwo. In Milan there will be two events on March 3: in the morning at the Garden of the Righteous at Monte Stella hill and in the afternoon with a conference at Milan City Hall together with the representatives of the new Righteous honored.
This year's theme is: “Preventing genocide and mass atrocities. The stories of the Righteous against silence and indifference”.
Accepting the appeal of the Gariwo Foundation, signed by numerous citizens and exponents of the world of culture, on 10 May 2012 the deputies of the European Parliament, thanks to the commitment of the then MEPs Gabriele Albertini (former promoter of the Garden of the Righteous in Milan) and David Sassoli, decided to establish the European Day of the Righteous.
In Italy, on 7 December 2017, the Day of the Righteous was decreed a civil solemnity, with a unanimous vote by the Italian Parliament and signature by President Sergio Mattarella.
Every year, on March 6, the example of the Righteous of the past and present is remembered to spread the values of responsibility, tolerance, solidarity.
The Gardens are in fact a cultural tool to bring alive in society the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the crime of Genocide, which after the Shoah united all the nations of the world thanks to the Polish-Jewish jurist Raphael Lemkin.
“Through the valorization of the stories of the Righteous of yesterday and today, public opinion is activated to react in the face of new forms of mass atrocities", explains Gariwo's President Gabriele Nissim. "In this way each individual can become aware that, with his personal action, he or she can always make a difference in every part of the world. This is the message that the Gardens of the Righteous convey as a warning to institutions and to the conscience of individuals.”
