PRIME MINISTER SIGNS THE ANNE FRANK DECLARATION AT 10 DOWNING STREET

The Prime Minister, Rt Hon David Cameron MP, signed the Anne Frank Declaration at 10 Downing Street on Wednesday 17 December. He signed as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party. 

The Anne Frank Declaration was written by the Anne Frank Trust UK in 1998. The words cite Anne Frank’s life to demonstrate what can happen when prejudice and hatred go unchallenged, and it calls upon us all to strive for a world in which everyone is treated fairly and has an equal chance in life.

At the signing by Prime Minister Cameron, The Trust’s Executive Director Gillian Walnes praised the Prime Minister for his personal commitment to Holocaust education as a way of combating prejudice and persecution. Speaking at the annual Downing Street Chanukah reception the Prime Minister said: “We will go on doing everything we can, with the Anne Frank Trust and others, to fight prejudice and discrimination and persecution in our country”. 

The Anne Frank Declaration has been signed up to since 1998 by world leaders such as the late South African President Nelson Mandela, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and former US President Bill Clinton.Hundreds of British political and civic leaders, as well as over 10,000 school children, have signed up to the Declaration. 

Notable recent signatories have included Dame Angelina Jolie, who signed in June on behalf of the UNHCR, rock legend Nile Rodgers on behalf of his We Are Family Foundation, actor Tim Robbins, City of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who signed on behalf of the city of Chicago, Home Secretary Theresa May and Communities Secretary Eric Pickles, and CEOs of the NSPCC, Peter Wanless, and the anti-racism in football organisation Kick It Out, Roisin Wood. 

The signers all receive a credit card size version of the Declaration to carry in their wallets as a reminder. The signing by the Prime Minister ends a year in which the Anne Frank Trust have brought their educational programmes to combat prejudice and discrimination to over 28,000 young people in 68 schools, and into 16 prisons. 

The Trust was awarded Gold Star status for its work by the Big Lottery Realising Ambition fund, and thanks to DCLG funding expanded its regional education programmes, currently in six UK regions, into the West Midlands. 

Its recently published independent report into the impact of its work has proved that 92% of young people who go through its peer education training programme have a greater recognition of the dangers of prejudice and 88% strongly thought that students had become more respectful and more likely to challenge discriminatory behaviour.

For full report see www.annefrank.org.uk.