On 3 March 2023, Sir Hersch Lauterpacht was honoured at a ceremony for the Day of the Righteous 2023 held in the Garden of the Righteous in Milan, Italy. Sir Hersch’s granddaughter, Mrs Gabriel Cox, accompanied by Mrs Emanuella Gillard – a former Research Fellow at the Centre and Research Assistant to Sir Eli Lauterpacht, were guests at the event organised by the Gardens of the Righteous Worldwide (Gariwo).
Gariwo's aim is to heighten awareness and interest in the men and women who fought, and are still fighting, in defence of human dignity. The theme chosen for the ceremony was: “Saving humanity in humankind. The Righteous and personal responsibility”. Sir Hersch was chosen for establishing the individual at the centre of law and personal responsibility of the individual, and for his efforts at the Nuremburg Trials.
Sir Hersch was honoured alongside the Welsh journalist, Gareth Jones, who was the first to document Holodomor, clashing with the indifference of the West and Soviet censorship until his mysterious death; Alfreda Noncia Markowska, a Roma woman, who lost her family during the Porrajmos but risked her life to save the greatest number of Roma and Jewish children from extermination and Akram Aylisli, an Azerbaijani writer, who denounced the violence in his country against the Armenians, supported the dialogue between the two peoples, and paid the price by being exiled from his own land.
Among invited guests to the event were members of Gariwo, civil representatives of the city of Milan and school students from different parts of Italy. All those honoured in the ceremony received a dedicated plaque to be displayed in the beautiful Garden of Milan (Monte Stella) for all to see.
Gabriel gave a most moving account of her grandfather’s life and work which you can watch at: Speech by Gabriel Cox at the Day of the Righteous 2023 at the Garden of the Righteous in Milan.
