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CoE calls for establishing 'Victims of Hate Crime' day

Xinhua, July 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

Anne Brasseur, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), repeated the call Wednesday for July 22 to be recognized as European Day for Victims of Hate Crime.

Mrs Brasseur was speaking in Oslo after a ceremony for the 77 victims of far-right terrorist Anders Breivik. The Speaker of the Norwegian Parliament Olemic Thommessen echoed her call.

On July 22, 2011, Breivik killed eight people in Oslo by setting off a van bomb near government buildings, then shot dead 69 participants of a Workers' Youth League summer camp on the island of Utoya.

Mrs Brasseur said: "It has been four years since those tragic events took place. The reality we face today is much more worrying than we would have thought four years ago; hatred and intolerance have become even more widespread in Europe, when they should have no place in our democratic societies.

"We need this European Day to show solidarity with all those who have been victims of hate crime, to enable people to recognize these human rights violations and to promote a wide and inclusive effort to combat hate," she added.

Mrs Brasseur said the fight against hatred and intolerance is "a never ending task". Two days ago an explosion in Suruc, Turkey, killed 32 young people during a summer expedition to help rebuild the war-torn city of Kobane, in Syria.

"This and other similar atrocities must be stopped," she commented. "We must stand and honour the dead by fighting even stronger for a more democratic and inclusive society."

The call to mark July 22 as a commemorative day for victims of hate crime was first made in September 2014, after the PACE political committee unanimously adopted a report on measures to counteract the spread of neo-Nazi ideology.

In January this year, a No Hate Parliamentary Alliance was formed by 36 politicians representing 30 different countries within PACE. The campaign aims to take "open, firm and proactive stands against racism, hatred and intolerance on whatever grounds and however they manifest themselves".

Allied to the alliance is a Council of Europe campaign, the No Hate Speech movement. This is aimed at the internet and is designed to raise awareness about hate speech online and its risks for democracy and for individual young people. Endit