The International Coordinating Committee for Holodomor Awareness and Recognition of the Ukrainian World Congress presented the government of Ukraine with a general plan to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor genocide of the Ukrainian people worldwide. Stefan Romaniw, First Vice President of the Ukrainian World Congress and Co-Chair of the Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO), stated this in an interview for SBS.
The plan consists, in particular, of advocacy activities to recognize the Holodomor as genocide.
“We want not only Ukrainians, but also politicians, and high-ranking officials around the world to make such a promise on the Holodomor anniversary that “we will not forget those who died, we will not forget this terror, and we will continue to talk about it,” Romaniw said.
An advocacy campaign to recognize the Holodomor as genocide is currently ongoing. In particular, the necessary measures are being carried out in Australia, Romaniw said.
“In Australia, we have been working for several months on the issue of recognizing the Holodomor as genocide. We offered the government to adopt a resolution with the word “genocide”, and they somewhat avoid it. This week, we again wrote to every member of the parliament and the senate to review this case,” Romaniw said.
As part of commemorating the 90th anniversary of the genocide of Ukrainians in 1932-1933, UWC launched the #ShineALight initiative. To join the campaign, participants will light a candle and vow, “I light a candle to preserve memory. I believe in the future of Ukraine.”
The International Coordinating Committee for Holodomor Awareness and Recognition promotes the preservation of the memory of the Holodomor victims. For this, two years ago, the UWC founded the global Holodomor Descendants’ Network, which records the memories of descendants of families who survived the Holodomor and takes care of preserving the memory of families.
“We understand that most of the people who survived the Holodomor have already passed away. But so that this candle would continue to burn, so that children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren would remember, we organized this Holodomor Descendants’ Network,” Romaniw said.
The Ukrainian World Congress calls on everyone to join the Holodomor-90 educational campaign. Materials, samples of letters, theses, videos, and banners are available for download at the link. There, you can also find out about commemorative events planned.
