OSCE High-Level Meeting on Preventing and Responding to Hate Incidents and Crimes against Christians

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The aim of this Meeting was to provide a platform for experts and practitioners to discuss hate-motivated crimes and incidents against Christians in the OSCE area. The objectives of the meeting were threefold: − Raising awareness on hate-motivated crimes and incidents targeting Christians and their property across the OSCE region; − Sharing good practices and gathering a set of recommendations on how to prevent and respond to hate-motivated crimes and incidents targeting Christians; − Illustrating and confronting the findings relevant to hate-motivated violence with the specific example of attacks on places of worship. Excerpt of the official summary of OSCE: “Interventions from the floor provided a wide range of examples, in particular those related to intolerance and discrimination against Christians. A number of civil society participants raised concerns that the rights of Christians to voice their beliefs publicly and to exhibit their faith through religious symbols are being constrained by anti-discrimination and hate speech laws. They considered this to be a restriction on Christians’ freedom of expression. In this context, it was also noted that Christians who profess their beliefs in public are often subject to both verbal threats and physical attacks.” (Summary Report, p. 12.) Summary of the Outcome of the meeting: http://www.osce.org/odihr/85579 Interesting quotations: OSCE Secretary General: "Hate Crimes Against Christians Strike Core Values" Archbishop Mamberti on Hate Crimes Against Christians Orthodox Metropolitan Hilarion on Hate Crimes against Christians