SCOOP: Paraguay to join International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance

(Oct. 15, 2026 / JNS)

Paraguay said on Thursday that it intends to become a full member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, the group that issues the widely used working definition of Jew-hatred.

The South American country made the announcement at the Argentinian embassy in Washington, with Argentine President Javier Milei present. Foreign ministers of Argentina and Paraguay attended, as did the Argentinian ambassador to the United States and Yehuda Kaploun, a rabbi and the U.S. State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat antisemitism.

Member governments of IHRA, an intergovernmental organization that addresses “contemporary challenges related to the Holocaust and genocide of the Roma,” strengthen the “historical record, so the world can better understand and remember what happened,” the alliance states.

“We equip leaders with what they need to craft international policies that support democratic and inclusive societies to help prevent genocide in the future,” it says.

Parallel to the Abraham Accords, the “IHRA Accords” are a collective, international push to get countries, regional bodies and institutions to join IHRA and to adopt its working definition of Jew-hatred.

Paraguay became the eighth Latin American country to say that it is adopting the working definition of Jew-hatred.

Argentina is the lone Latin American country with full-member status in IHRA. Uruguay is an observer nation.

JNS reported last month that Costa Rica intends to pursue membership. The country’s government has yet to confirm that publicly.

The United States and Argentina have made a concerted effort to expand IHRA adoption in Latin America.

The announcement on Thursday initiates a process for Paraguay, which now has observer status. It could subsequently become an IHRA liaison and then full member.

There are about 1,100 Jews in Paraguay, according to the World Jewish Congress. “Largely traditional, though not Orthodox, Paraguayan Jewry is highly Zionist and concentrated in Asunción, the capital,” the Jewish group says.