[6] The IHRA carries out internal projects, seeks to influence public-policy making on Holocaust-related issues and develops research focusing on lesser known aspects of the Holocaust.

[11] Yehuda Bauer was invited to head the academic committee, while Nobel Prize Laureate Professor Elie Wiesel was asked to become the Honorary Chairman of the Forum.

As German sociologist Helmut Dubiel notes, the conference "took place in an atmosphere informed by right-wing violence and spectacular success of rightist parties at the voting polls.

Nonetheless, the end of the millennium and the anniversary of Auschwitz constituted a reference point for the foundation of a transnational union for struggle against genocide.

With humanity still scarred by genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia, the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight those evils.

According to the declaration, "the international community shares a solemn responsibility to fight" against "genocide, ethnic cleansing, racism, antisemitism and xenophobia".

These examples include classical antisemitic tropes, Holocaust denial and attempts to apply a double standard to the State of Israel.

[38] While the announcement was welcomed by the New Zealand Jewish Council and the Holocaust Centre of New Zealand as a means of combating racism and anti-Semitism, Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa chairman John Minto claimed that adopting the IHRA definition would silence criticism of alleged Israeli human rights abuses against the Palestinians.

The chairmanship coincided with a controversial decision by Norway to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the birth of Knut Hamsun, the Nobel Prize–winning Norwegian author and later Nazi sympathizer.

Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, Chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, challenged Norway's chairmanship of the IHRA, arguing that "this country is unfit to hold such a position when in the same year it has held major memorial activities for the Nazi-admirer Hamsun.

Not only is none of this true, but it was the Norwegian chairman that, before this controversy exploded, insisted on including the fight against antisemitism as a central component in the IHRA's immediate future program − the proposal was accepted by acclamation.

The Holy See's Under Secretary of State, Monsignor Pietro Parolin, answered favorably, suggesting that the Vatican become an IHRA observer country.

The IHRA representatives—Austrian Ambassador Ferdinand Trauttsmandorff, US Professor Steven Katz of the Elie Wiesel Center at Boston University, and Dina Porat, the academic advisor to the ITF—"expressed considerable disappointment about the unexpected set-back," the cable reported.

[46] Julieta Valls Noyes, second in command at the American Embassy to the Holy See, reported in October 2009 that the plans "had fallen apart completely ... due to Vatican back-pedaling".

According to Noyes, this could indicate that the Vatican "may ... be pulling back due to concerns about ITF pressure to declassify records from the WWII-era pontificate of Pope Pius XII".

[44] With the exception of two statements made about the commencement of the atrocities in Poland, Pope Pius XII has long been a controversial figure for his failure to publicly denounce the Holocaust.

[48] On 2 March 2020, the Holy See officially opened the Vatican Apostolic Archive covering material from Pius XII's tenure (1939-1958).

[49] Commending the change of Vatican policy, the IHRA Chair, Ambassador Georges Santer, said: "Archival access is a key aspect of Holocaust remembrance, and contributes directly to safeguarding the historical record.