OSCE Convenes to Address Rising Anti-Semitism in Europe
Feature Story by civilrights.org staff - 7/1/2003
Last week, the Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) met in Vienna, Austria to hold its first international meeting dealing specifically with anti-Semitism. The meeting signaled recognition by many of OSCE's 55 member states that past pledges to address anti-Semitism within the framework of the OSCE's antiracism and religious intolerance agenda have not been fulfilled.The significance of the meeting was shown by the number of high-level government representatives and prominent non-governmental human rights organizations who took part. Among those in attendance was the Lawyers Committee on Human Rights (LCHR) which urged that the conference represent only the beginning of a sustained effort on the part of the state and the OSCE "to monitor and combat discrimination and violence faced by Jewish communities throughout the OSCE region."
LCHR Director of Program Michael McClintock called former OSCE efforts part of a "see no evil, hear no evil information deficit within the OSCE's own human rights mechanisms and in the governments of many European states." The failure of OSCE governments and institutions to adequately monitor, report upon, and take action to combat anti-Semitic and other racist acts has been previously addressed in the Lawyers Committee's 2002 report "Fires and Broken Glass: The Rise of Anti-Semitism in Western Europe" and in a forthcoming report, "A Critique of the Department of State's Annual Human Rights Reports."
In closing, many OSCE representatives pledged to support a range of actions to combat anti-Semitism on an ongoing basis. However, Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, cautions that the real test is "whether the Vienna conference will soon fade away as just a good show or whether it will be a trigger, the true starting point for a new worldwide effort to stand up against anti-Semitism."
McClintock believes that the Vienna conference provides a firm basis for follow up through the OSCE's next meetings on human rights issues, including conferences on religious freedom, racism and intolerance.
