World Committee for the Garden of the Righteous "Gariwo" starts collecting signatures for an appeal to the European Parliament to establish the European Day of Remembrance for the Righteous: "The Righteous preserved the honor of Europe during the Shoah and made us not lose faith in humanity. (...) Today, we also consider as Righteous those who opposed the Armenian genocide, provided assistance to the victims of the war in Rwanda, Cambodia, and during ethnic cleansing in former Yugoslavia. The title of Righteous also belongs to those who stood up for dignity and freedom in totalitarian regimes and did not hesitate to openly speak out about the criminal system of the Gulag."

It was their courage that contributed to the unification of Europe. These examples have a universal dimension. They encourage us to cherish the legacy of the Righteous and to strongly oppose all forms of racism, ethnic, social, political, and religious discrimination (...) The world we live in is not free from conflicts, which should especially prompt us to remind about the deeds of the Righteous, to point out the value of Good." Among the signatories of the appeal are Umberto Eco, Dario Fo, Svetlana Broz, Marc-Henri Fermont, Daniel J. Goldhagen, Aleksander Kwaśniewski, Władysław Bartoszewski, and Tadeusz Mazowiecki.