A/HRC/40/44
phenomena, ensuring that such information is easily available, widely disseminated and
used to develop and improve policies aimed at combating them.
6.
Italy reported that its General Investigations and Special Operations Division
continuously monitors environments marked by “political extremism”, with a view to
timely interception and prevention of illegal actions. The operations are addressed to a
variety of situations connected with the radical right wing, in order to fight and prosecute
all types of situations, behaviours or ideological dissemination by groups and movements
inspired by Nazi-fascist principles and by racial, ethnic or religious discrimination. There is
a special focus on behaviour which violates specific legislation such as the Scelba Law No.
645/1952 and the Mancino Law No. 205/1993 and their amendments.
7.
The Russian Federation reported that it took all necessary measures to prevent the
creation and activities on its territory of organizations and movements based on xenophobic
ideologies and calling for discrimination and violence against persons on the basis of
religious affiliation. It noted that various manifestations of such intolerance have been
prosecuted under the Federal Law of July 25, 2002 No. 114-3 “On countering extremist
activities”, whereby the incitement to social, racial, national or religious hatred is
recognized as extremist activity.
8.
It added that considerable attention was paid to preventing the spread of radicalism
among young people. The Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation,
together with the National Anti-Terrorism Committee and the Federal Institute for the
Development of Education, have developed guidelines for the employees and management
of educational organizations to counter the spread of extremism in youth environments, as
well as a set of measures to prevent extremism and xenophobia.
9.
Interactive programmes for the prevention of extremism and of discriminatory
behaviour by students (aged 14 to 21 years), entitled “Zero discrimination”, have been
created. 3 The “Science and education against terror” portal, developed with 42 Russian
higher education institutions, publishes materials to counter terrorist ideology.4 The Internet
resource entitled “Interactive map of anti-terrorism activities in educational organizations
and scientific institutions of the Russian Federation” has been functioning since 2016.
10.
Qatar reported that it undertook education and awareness-raising programmes in
order to prevent the manifestation of extremism in society. It reported that its official
approach was based on values of peace and a rejection of violence and extremism. There
were many projects promoting religious freedom to support this approach.
11.
Saudi Arabia reported that the first Arab Islamic American Summit had taken place
in Riyadh in 2017, establishing the International Centre to Fight Extremism with the
strategic objective of fighting intellectual, media and digital extremism and promoting
coexistence and tolerance among people.
12.
The High Commissioner recalls that measures taken to combat religious intolerance
and violent extremism should reflect the principles of inclusiveness and participation. They
should take gender into account and be adapted to the domestic context. Key concepts
related to violent extremism should be clearly defined, particularly when they can
potentially trigger measures that may impinge on human rights, for example when the terms
“extremism” or “radicalization” are used to cover non-violent activity.5
3
4
5
See, for example, http://tolerancecenter.ru/vserossiyskiy-urok-2018/.
See http://scienceport.ru./.
Additional guidance is to be found in the Secretary-General’s Plan of Action to Prevent Violent
Extremism (A/70/674) and the High Commissioner’s report on best practices and lessons learned on
how protecting and promoting human rights contribute to preventing and countering violent
extremism (A/HRC/33/29).
3
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