OSCE's ministerial council pledges to fight “prejudice, intolerance and discrimination against Christians, Muslims and members of other religions.”
"Based on consultations I conclude that OSCE participating States (...) condemn without reserve racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and other forms of intolerance and discrimination, including against Muslims and Christians, as well as harassment and incitement to hate crimes motivated, inter alia, by race, colour, sex, language, religion or belief, political or other opinion, national or social origin, birth or other status; and reaffirm their existing OSCE commitments in this field;..."
In 2001 an Independent Study of Crime against Places of Worship in Somerset found: of the 77 clergy surveyed, 16 had been assaulted a total of 26 times in the last 2 years. 20 of the assaults occurred during robberies. In July 2001, the charity Nacro produced a Community Safety practice briefing on Faith Communities for the Home Office, it states; "In one of the local government areas where Nacro is conducting an audit of crime and disorder, 31 of the 37 people in public ministry roles (ie clergy or full time lay workers) had been threatened with assault or assaulted. Of the 19 who had actually been assaulted 12 of them now have some persistent medical or psychological health burden as a result of their victimisation."
In 2001 an Independent Academic Research study of more than 1,000 Anglican Clergy showed that in the last two years 7 out of 10 clergy surveyed had experienced some kind of violence; 7 out of 10 clergy had been verbally abused; 1 in 5 were threatened with harm; 12% were physically assaulted; 4 in 10 were afraid of becoming a victim while at work.