In Wake Of Bhutto Assassination: Wiesenthal Center Renews Call To Declare All Suicide Bombings “Crimes Against Humanity”

December 27, 2007

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                              

 
IN WAKE OF BHUTTO ASSASSINATION: WIESENTHAL CENTER RENEWS CALL TO DECLARE ALL SUICIDE BOMBINGS "CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY"

Center calls on United Nations to Convene Special Session on Suicide Terror

Adding its voice in protest of today’s horrific murder of former Pakistan Prime Minister, Benazir Bhutto, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading human rights NGO reiterated its call for swift action by the international community to declare suicide bombing, ‘a crime against humanity’.  “Until we put suicide bombing on top of the international community’s agenda by treating it as the leading threat to world peace, this virulent cancer will only spread.  We call on the United Nations to convene a special session to address the scourge of suicide terror,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Abraham Cooper, the Center’s associate dean. 
         
They continued, “In this era of terrorism, it is critical to use all legal means available to pursue the deadly chain of command of suicide terror. To carry out a suicide terror attack takes many hands including preachers, trainers, funders, and other enablers of acts that have murdered thousands of innocents and destroyed tens of thousands of families across the globe,” they said.  “It’s time to go after all of them with new legal tools that could help cripple the infrastructure of suicide terror.”
          
Crimes Against Humanity was a legal concept first deployed during the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal after World War II in wake of the mass murders and genocide wrought by Nazi Germany and its allies.  The Wiesenthal Center launched their campaign to make suicide terror a “crime against humanity” in 2004 during a meeting with the late Pope John Paul II.  The Center's Draft Convention has been discussed with over 20 Foreign Ministers and was the basis for a motion passed last year by the Australian Parliament, and in November 2007 by the Counter-Terrorism Commission of the 22 member-state "Parlatino" (Latin-American Parliament).

For more information and/or to schedule an interview, contact the Center’s public relations department, 310-553-9036.