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held in Strasbourg in October 1997. The task of ECRI is to combat racism, xenophobia,
anti-Semitism and intolerance at the level of greater Europe and from the perspective of the
protection of human rights. In the third Summit held in Warsaw on 17 May 2005, the Heads of
State and Government of the member States of the Council of Europe adopted the Warsaw
Declaration, in which they strongly condemned all forms of intolerance and discrimination, in
particular those based on sex, race and religion, including anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and
affirmed their determination to further develop, within the Council of Europe, rules and effective
machinery to prevent and eradicate them.
69. In recent years, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) has
held several conferences on promoting tolerance and non-discrimination, combating
anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and Christianophobia and tackling hate speech on the Internet.
In December 2004, the OSCE chairman appointed three Personal Representatives to promote
greater tolerance and combat racism, xenophobia and discrimination across the OSCE region:
Ambassador Ömür Orhun of Turkey, Personal Representative on combating intolerance and
discrimination against Muslims; Gert Weisskirchen of Germany, Personal Representative on
combating anti-Semitism; and Anastasia Crickley of Ireland, Personal Representative on
combating racism, xenophobia and discrimination, also focusing on intolerance and
discrimination against Christians and members of other religions. Among other initiatives put in
place by OSCE, the Special Rapporteur welcomes the Conference held on 6 June 2007 in
Bucharest on “Combating Discrimination and Promoting Mutual Respect and Understanding” as
a follow-up to the OSCE “Conference on Anti-Semitism and Other Forms of Intolerance” which
was held in Cordoba, Spain on 7-8 June 2005. The Special Rapporteur has constantly been
invited by the Director of the Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights,
Ambassador Christian Strohal, to actively participate in these conferences, thus being given the
opportunity to share his findings and observations.
70. Apart from large-scale projects carried out by civil society, some local and grassroots
initiatives also exemplify efforts to fight religious discrimination. The Nairobi-based Inter-Faith
Action for Peace in Africa is a civil society initiative developed by a number of religious
communities and institutions, including the Lutheran World Federation, to promote tolerance and
conflict resolution in plural communities in Africa. A number of programmes are being
developed in countries recovering from civil war, including Liberia, Mozambique, Rwanda,
Sierra Leone, the Sudan and Uganda. The activities developed by this joint action highlight the
importance of promoting a culture of peace and inter-religious dialogue as a key step in
overcoming conflict and promote development in the region.
71. In 2000, an Anglican priest in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,
Donald Reeves, created a non-governmental organization (NGO) called The Soul of Europe to
promote mutual understanding between Islam and Christianity. A number of relevant projects
have been organized, including a meeting of community leaders from Banja Luka, in Bosnia and
Herzegovina, which took place in Coventry Cathedral in London in September 2001. This NGO
has been developing reconciliation tasks in several regions in Bosnia. Other initiatives it
conducted include an Islamic-Christian dialogue involving 60 European organizations in the
European Parliament in Brussels in December 2003 and a meeting for reconciliation in Lebanon
which took place in May 2004.
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