Global challenges fuelling rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the OSCE area, says OSCE Personal Representative

VIENNA, 17 March 2009 - An expert meeting organized by the OSCE to help identify tools that could be developed in the fight against anti-Semitism started in Vienna today.

The roundtable discussion was organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and Rabbi Andrew Baker, the newly appointed Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Combating Anti-Semitism.

"I think we all recognize that there has been a significant increase in the last several months in anti-Semitic manifestations and incidents in many countries in the OSCE region," said Rabbi Baker.

"There is a sense that both the conflict in the Middle East and the concerns of the larger economic situation worldwide have contributed to this, and so in meeting today we are trying to take stock of what is taking place but also to look forward to what practical steps should be encouraged to deal with this problem."

Jo-Anne Bishop, the Head of ODIHR's Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Department, said that the roundtable was organized in order to discuss trends and the recent upsurge in anti-Semitic hate incidents reported by governments and civil society.

"Given the role of the OSCE as a regional security organization concerned with the prevention of conflict and early warning mechanisms, we felt it was important to have our finger on the pulse in terms of current trends and methods taken to fight anti-Semitism," she said.

The meeting brings together representatives of civil society and international organizations, as well as Jewish leaders from several OSCE participating States.

Morten Kjaerum, Director of the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights, and Ambassador Ferdinand Trauttmansdorff, who represents the Chair of the Task Force for International Cooperation on Holocaust Education, Remembrance and Research, as well as the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media, Miklos Haraszti, are also taking part in the discussion.

Topics to be discussed include physical and verbal attacks against individuals and violent attacks targeting places of worship, community property, cemeteries and Holocaust memorial sites; anti-Semitism in the public discourse; government responses and recommendations to OSCE bodies, participating States and civil society.