Thursday, 5 October
Time: 14:00-15:00
Venue: Meeting Room 1 — Belweder
Title: Addressing Anti-Religious Hate Crime in the OSCE Area
Convenor: OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights
Working language: English, Russian
Summary: Anti-religious intolerance and hate crimes continues to be a concern across the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) region. Such manifestations of intolerance threaten both the security of individuals and societal cohesion, as discrimination and intolerant discourse often escalate into violence and wider scale conflict. At the same time, a comprehensive security regime is also needed to fully respect, protect and fulfil freedom of religion or belief, which is specifically acknowledged as one of the fundamental principles guiding mutual relations among OSCE participating States and an integral aspect of the OSCE’s concept of security. Furthermore, participating States of the OSCE have agreed on a broad range of commitments to address racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, discrimination and intolerance, including intolerance against Christians, Muslims, Jews and members of other religions. This side event will present the current situation in the OSCE area with regards to anti-religious hate crime, including reporting and addressing it. It will also highlight ODIHR’s recent and forthcoming tools, such as community security guides and factsheets. The discussion will also address gender-related aspects of anti-religious hate crime. The side event will be organized by the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) with the support of the FoRB Roundtable Brussels-EU. It will be moderated by ODIHR and potential speakers include:
Eric Roux or Ivan Arjona, FoRB Roundtable Brussels-EU;
Djermana Kuric, Islamic Community of Bosnia and Herzegovina;
Representative of the Jewish Community in North Macedonia;
and Christine Mirre, CAP Freedom of Conscience
