After Mumbai: India’s UN Ambassador Endorses Wiesenthal Center Call for UN Terrorism Action

December 11, 2008

AFTER MUMBAI: INDIA’S UN AMBASSADOR ENDORSES WIESENTHAL CENTER CALL FOR UN TERRORISM ACTION
Ambassador Sen’s support is a major step to helping to break UN gridlock

His Excellency Nirupam Sen, India’s Ambassador at the United Nations, (pictured with Rabbi Hier)  endorsed the idea of a UN Special Session on Terrorism in a briefing today with Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Ambassador Sen said that the UN must, "unite in order to be relevant to one of the most important challenges of our time." His endorsement is a crucial step to break the diplomatic and political gridlock that slows UN action against terrorism.

The briefing today follows the Wiesenthal Center launch of a global online campaign (www.wiesenthal.com), a grassroots effort calling on the President of the UN General Assembly to convene a Special Session. At a recent press briefing, leading Hindu and Sikh representatives joined Jewish and Muslim leaders to propose a consortium of faith leaders to also urge the UN to take action through spiritual and educational outreach. Sri Sri Ravishankar, a revered Hindu leader who helped the Wiesenthal Center in convening their historic 2007 interfaith conference, "What the world needs now," he said, "is for the guiding principles of nonviolence and truth to be propagated with greater intensity."

Since 2003, the Simon Wiesenthal Center has spearheaded a campaign to have suicide bombings declared a ‘Crime Against Humanity’. The goal of the campaign is to create a legal tool for victims to go after sponsors and those who inspire this deadly culture of mass murder worldwide. To this end, Center officials have brought the initiative to His Holiness, the late Pope John Paul II and his successor Benedict XVI; then-Turkish Foreign Minister Abdallah Gul and to key diplomats from over 20 countries.

To see and sign the Center’s petition, go to: http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=4441467&ct=6435325

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, and the Council of Europe.