A/HRC/25/34
every person equal enjoyment of the rights prescribed by law, irrespective of a number of
grounds, including religion or belief, and discrimination shall be prohibited in all spheres.
28.
In July 2011, the Civil Code of Georgia had been amended and article 15091 had
been added to allow the registration of religious groups as religious associations.
Germany
29.
Germany reported that the Federal Government actively supported networking,
democratic consciousness and participation, education and publication of civic engagement
through the Forum against Racism; the Government-funded programme, “Cohesion
through Participation”; the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für
politische Bildung, BpB); and the Alliance for Democracy and Tolerance.
30.
The Federal Ministry of the Interior, for many years, had successfully promoted
Christian-Jewish cooperation, as well as interreligious and intercultural dialogue between
Christians and Jews, and had, in recent years, extended the dialogue to a trialogue at the
international level with Muslims. In 2006, the German Islam Conference had been launched
to establish a permanent communication process between the German State (Federal
Government, Federal Länder, municipalities) and the representatives of Muslims living in
Germany, aimed at improving their structural and social integration and strengthening
social cohesion (www.deutsche-islam-konferenz.de).
31.
The police combated hate crime, including by systematically prosecuting hate
crimes as offences against State security and recording them separately; cooperating with
counselling bodies and supporting projects, associations and institutions providing
assistance to victims, in an effort to encourage those seeking help to come forward;
undertaking differentiated analysis of the number of cases nationally, in order to elaborate
potential prevention measures; and cataloguing measures to combat politically motivated
crime in order to perceive, record and combat relevant offences in a more targeted manner.
The police took regular preventive measures, such as stepping up physical protection or
police controls, with regard to especially vulnerable points, for example, Jewish cemeteries.
32.
In 2011, the Federal Ministry of the Interior had launched the Security Partnership
Initiative, a body comprised of representatives of the Federal Government, the Federal
Länder, security authorities and Muslims, aimed at increasing public awareness of the
problem of radicalization of young people, to initiate projects and to provide financial
support to successful projects of the Muslim community and to security authorities, at the
local level (www.initiative-sicherheitspartnerschaft.de).
Greece
33.
Greece outlined the legislative framework as well as the measures and actions
implemented by the Greek Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Culture and Sports.
It noted that while article 3 of the Constitution recognized the Eastern Orthodox Church as
the predominant religion, the Greek State had declared its commitment to protecting the
religious freedom of all other religious aggregations and expressions (art. 13). It added that
the constitutional provision of “dominant” religion does not mean or imply any reduction or
restriction of religious freedom of other religions.
34.
The dialogue between the State and ecclesiastical jurisdictions and religious
communities was constitutionally guaranteed and regulated within the constitutional
guarantee of religious freedom. Free choice in the organization and administration of every
church and religious community was protected by the Constitution.
7
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