Source: http://ejpress.org/article/39652
A Jewish group has urged the 56 states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to make good on their pledge to respond to growing anti-Semitism and hate violence across the region.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which is fighting anti-Semitism in the world, presented recommendations to governments at the OSCE’s annual Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw on action to address the problem.
The meeting brought together hundreds of government representatives and human rights experts to review progress made by OSCE states in implementing their commitments in the field of human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
“Since we last gathered in this room, anti-Semitism has gained legitimacy across the OSCE region and around the world,” Stacy Burdett, ADL associate director of government and national affairs, told the gathering.
“This is accompanied by a rise in violent extremism targeting Jews and others, based on their race, religion, ethnicity and sexual orientation. While a growing number of states are tackling the challenge of hate crime, only a small minority of the states have an adequate system in place.”
The ADL called on the OSCE to convene a high-level conference on anti-Semitism and intolerance in 2010 to provide an important focal point to chart a course for progress.
“Hate crime laws are the jumping off point for a whole range of political, policy education, prevention and response measures,” ADL said.
“Even the mere collection of disaggregated hate crime data is a powerful tool to confront anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry because it highlights the issue of hate violence for policymakers and the public, and prompts government outreach and police training to identify, report, and respond to hate violence.”
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