Press Release
Published on September 2, 2014
Washington D.C. – Human Rights First today praised the Organization for Security and Co-Operation in Europe (OSCE) for including members of civil society and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in the upcoming OSCE Berlin Conference on Anti-Semitism during a Civil Society Forum to be held on November 12. This week Human Rights First’s Tad Stahnke travels to Berlin for a convening of the Civil Society Forum Civil steering committee on September 3.
“The Civil Society Forum is an important opportunity for civil society leaders, human rights defenders, and NGOs to review implementation of the obligations of the 57 OSCE member states to combat antisemitism and hate crime and to call on senior government leaders to condemn hatred and confront political extremism across Europe and North America,” said Stahnke.
Recommendations developed during the November 12 Civil Society Forum will be presented as part of the November 13 conference hosted by the OSCE and the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. This high-level event will mark the 10th anniversary of the “Berlin Declaration” on Anti-Semitism.
Human Rights First’s recently release report , “We Are Not Nazis, but… The Rise of Hate Parties in Hungary and Greece and Why America Should Care,” documents the rise of violent ultra-nationalist antisemitic parties in Hungary and Greece that are corroding human rights and democratic values from inside the European Union. Human Rights First continues to urge the U.S. government to work, with its E.U. partners and bilaterally, to help restore the rule of law and fundamental rights in Greece and Hungary.
