UN rights chief marks anniversary of Auschwitz death camp liberation News
UN rights chief marks anniversary of Auschwitz death camp liberation

[JURIST] UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official profile] made a statement [text] on Monday ahead of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust, 70 years after the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp was liberated. Hussein stated that the world is still haunted by the tragic events of that war and that discrimination is still alive and well. He went on to state, “[d]iscrimination and hatred kill and wound thousands of people. They also harm each one of us. They negate the wonderful diversity of individuals and cultures within our shared membership of humanity, and our fundamental and universal human rights.” He has encouraged the world to use this day to help end discrimination in order to have a world where people can live with liberty, equality, respect and justice.

Anti-Semitism remains an issue in the twenty-first century. Last Thursday the UN General Assembly held [JURIST report] a day-long meeting to discuss anti-Semitism. Earlier this month French police arrested [JURIST report] 54 people for supporting terrorism in the wake of the terrorist attacks at the offices of French humor magazine Charlie Hebdo and a kosher supermarket. In February 2010 a Canadian report found [JURIST report] that anti-Semitism was rising in the population.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Pope Urban II sparks First Crusade

Pope Urban II threw his support behind what would become the First Crusade on November 27, 1095 during the Council of Clairmont. The Pope urged the council's participants to render aid to the Byzantine Empire, which was being attacked by the Seljuks. Pope Urban called for a wide coalition of rich and poor to combat the threat, which eventually resulted in the conquest of much of the Muslim-controlled Levant by the Crusaders and the establishment of the Crusader States. Read Pope Urban's address.  

Catholic Code of Canon Law revised

On November 27, 1983, the revised Code of Canon Law of the Roman Catholic Church went into effect. Learn more about the history of Canon Law from Professor Kenneth Pennington of the Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law.

Alfred Nobel creates Nobel Prize in his will

On November 27, 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his will, creating the Nobel Prize. Learn more about the history of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Commission.