A/HRC/32/29 the negative representation of black people, promoting equal opportunities and combating prejudice and racism. 16. Mr. Jamin focused on racist parties, noting that they were usually described as “farright” parties. He specified that this did not mean that religious extremist parties did not constitute a problem for democracy. But, in general, parties advocating racism, xenophobia, islamophobia, anti-Semitism and incitement to discrimination put themselves on the extreme right. He referred to the definition of democracy and to the different battles for democratic legitimacy between traditional, or so-called democratic, parties and extremeright parties. 17. With regard to the definition of democracy and the incompatibility between far-right parties and democracy, he stated that far-right parties defined democracy as the legitimation that resulted from elections and believed that, in order to be a democratic party, it had to abide by existing rules and procedures and needed to obtain enough votes to be legitimate and able to represent voters. For far-right parties, these criteria were sufficient for legitimacy. For traditional parties, on the other hand, this was indispensable, but not sufficient. Traditional parties also looked for the respect of some values and principles having their foundation in core international human rights instruments. For traditional parties, the pillar of “respecting electoral procedure” went hand in hand with the pillar of “fundamental human rights and values”, so that the second pillar would monitor the first and prevent abuses. 18. Mr. Jamin stressed that the difference between the definition of democracy by farright parties and by traditional parties was fundamental. It was not possible to organize a political system with popular parties, democratic procedures and regular elections while at the same time tolerate torture, arbitrary arrest, State-sponsored racism or other forms of discrimination and human rights violations. 19. He noted that, in practice, many traditional parties promoted public policies that directly or indirectly violated fundamental rights. An example of the way traditional parties violated human rights was the European policy toward migrants, which was adopted by traditional parties and governments, and which sometimes forced the expulsion of asylum seekers to their countries of origin. He recommended more discussion on the second pillar in State policies and in documents promoting democracy and providing information on acquiring citizenship or residence. He concluded that the second pillar was just as important as the first 20. Ms. Bozkurt referred to the current refugee crisis, which has deepened and rather normalized the racist discourse within the public debate and was helping the extreme right to become the voice for a large group of frightened and angry citizens. She underlined how the refugee crisis was initially considered a problem of only a few countries. But this changed drastically in 2015 owing to the increased influx of refugees, especially in Europe. Extreme-right leaders called for protests against asylum-seeker centres, describing male refugees as possible radical jihadists or potential rapists. The incidents that took place on New Year’s Eve in Cologne, Germany, did not help either. It caused massive anger and a more racist attitude towards refugees. Even though it later turned out that hardly any refugees were involved, the damage had already been done. 21. Extreme-right parties always availed themselves of the right to freedom of expression and framed opposition to immigration in a way that was acceptable to a large number of people who were turned off by straightforward racism. They covered up their discourse as defending domestic traditions and values. While a Constitution or other legislation could not stand up, political leaders who respected it could, and silence would only help racism to increase. However, the rhetoric of mainstream parties came close to that of extreme-right parties in order to attract voters. It was not easy to define the borderline 4