Anti-Semitism was first condemned by OSCE participating States in 1990. The OSCE's 2004 Berlin Conference on anti-Semitism identified anti-Semitism as a threat to stability and security in the OSCE region. In Berlin and at subsequent Ministerial Council meetings, governments committed to comprehensively address hate crime data-collection, legislation, law enforcement, prosecution, judiciary and co-operation with civil society.

In many participating States, the use of Nazi symbols and Holocaust-denial are specifically criminalized, leading to hate speech being included in their data on hate crimes. A further methodological challenge is that anti-Semitic hate crime is recorded differently in different jurisdictions. Due to the particular nature of the phenomenon, anti-Semitic cases can be recorded as anti-religious, anti-ethnic or – more broadly – racist and xenophobic hate crime. Several Jewish civil society organizations work directly with the police to monitor anti-Semitic incidents. This innovative practice allows intelligence to be shared and resources allocated to increase the protection of Jewish communities. However, under-reporting is also an issue in the region, with Jewish communities citing a lack of trust in the authorities as a common reason.

ODIHR | TANDIS

---