20/04/2016 Session
The Assembly today expressed its concern at the targeted attacks against members of the Jewish community in Europe, who every day are the victims of stereotypes, insults and physical violence, and called on member states to consider the fight against antisemitism as a priority and their responsibility.
The resolution adopted on the basis of the report by Boriss Cilevičs (Latvia, SOC) recommends that the legislative framework on combating discrimination should also cover manifestations of antisemitism, such as “public incitement to violence or hatred, public insults, threats and desecration and profanation of Jewish property and monuments”. The members of the Assembly also considered that the public denial, trivialisation or praise of the Holocaust, of crimes of genocide and of crimes against humanity should be made a criminal offence.
In addition, the Assembly encouraged member states to prosecute political figures and political parties for antisemitic statements and incitement to hatred, and to cease the public funding of organisations and political parties promoting antisemitism.
The adopted text puts forward other measures regarding, in particular, the reporting of antisemitic and other hate crimes, and the prevention of antisemitism in educational establishments, the media and online.
Lastly, PACE called on members of national parliaments and political leaders to publicly condemn antisemitic statements, and urged national parliaments to co-operate with the No Hate Parliamentary Alliance and the No Hate Speech Movement campaign.