The Third International Expert Forum on Tolerance "Xenophobia and European Radicalism. Global Challenges".
OF THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL EXPERT FORUM OF TOLERANCE
"XENOPHOBIA AND RADICALISM IN EUROPE: GLOBAL CHALLENGES"
Athens, October 21-23, 2018.
Preface:
We are an independent group of public and religious figures, social scientists and educators, who participated in an International Forum dedicated to fostering tolerance and combating extremism in Europe. We drafted the following recommendations that, we hope, international organizations and governments everywhere will consider turning into policy. We will assist that endeavor in any way that we can.
1. In the field of national legislation:
1.1. We call upon states to guarantee the right of national-cultural autonomy to minorities in accordance with the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities(FCNM).
1.2. We recommend the creation of publicly accountable agencies to monitor minority rights and arbitrate disputes in the fight against discrimination.
1.3 We suggest greater cooperation between governments and private internet companies to monitor homophobic, sexist, racist and xenophobic websites more closely.
1.4 To minimize the incitement of hatred and violent crime, we recommend to legislators that they consider bringing national policies in line with Article 4 of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
2. In the field of international law:
2.1. More explicit criteria for hate speech are required in order to strengthen the main provisions of the afore-mentioned International Convention and the ECRI Pan-European Recommendation No. 7 (2017). We propose organizing a select committee of experts that will advise the European Union and its members on appropriate changes with infringing upon civil liberties.
2.2. We recommend that the European Union consider forming its own International Anti-Discrimination Bureau. Such an organization would be useful in proposing appropriate measures to sanction countries that discriminate against different minorities.
3. In the field of the state-level preventive and law enforcement practices:
3.1 We consider it necessary to develop international standards for collecting statistical data on hate crimes and to publish it in timely fashion on the web portals of state agencies.
3.2 We consider it essential to re-evaluate the criteria for assessing what are “safe” countries when dealing with the deportation of refugees. European Union members should insist that law enforcement authorities comply with human rights standards at the borders, in line with the ECtHR jurisprudence.
3.3 We suggest the formation of a special committee to investigate the collective pushbacks of migrants by border police forces.
3.4 Programs are necessary to help victims of hate crimes. Teacher education and teacher training courses, along with mandatory courses on anti-discrimination practices for civil servants and police, should be introduced in all monitored countries.
3.5. We recommend that states and international organizations encourage gender, ethnic and religious diversity in their ranks. We also suggest establishing inter-ethnic and inter-religious contacts between representatives of different communities.
3.6 We suggest that states and organizations publish open-source dossiers that list anti-discriminatory laws and possible interventions to protect the rights of minorities and victims of hate crimes.
4. In the field of international practices:
4.1. European agencies must protect NGO activists engaged in the fight for human rights among member states and elsewhere.
4.2 We suggest the establishment of an ongoing international research group that would analyze the legislation and law enforcement practices that are being applied towards different minority groups. Its conclusions should be published.
"XENOPHOBIA AND RADICALISM IN EUROPE: GLOBAL CHALLENGES"
Athens, October 21-23, 2018.
October 21
14.00-23.00. Hotel «Novotel, Athens» (4-6 Michail Voda str. 104 39 Athens, Greece). Arrival of Participants.
14:00 - 19:00. Hotel «Novotel, Athens» (4-6 Michail Voda str. 104 39 Athens, Greece). Registration of Participants.
October 22
Hotel «Novotel, Athens», 4-6 Michail Voda str. 104 39 Athens, Greece.
7.45. - 08.30. Lobby. Registration of Participants.
08.30 - 09. 45. Conference Hall. Opening of the Conference.
Moderators:
Prof. Matthew Feldman, York University, Director of the Center for the Analysis of Right-wing Radicalism (London, UK); Dr. Valery Engel, Head of the Center for Monitoring and Comparative Analysis of Intercultural Communications of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis (Russia), Senior Fellow, Center for the Analysis of Right-wing Radicalism (London, UK); Ms. Vera Tika, Panteion University, director of the Institute for the study of Social Economy (Athens, Greece).
• Ms. Maria Yannakaki, Secretary General for Transparency and Human Rights of the Ministry of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights of Greece.
• Prof. Mikhail Fedotov, Chairman of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society and Human Rights, Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation.
• Mr. Eleftherios Papagiannakis, Vice-Mayor of Athens (Greece).
• Dr. Lev Surat, Provost of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis (Moscow, Russia).
• Prof. Stephen Eric Bronner
, Executive Committee of UNESCO, Chair for the Prevention of Genocide. Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights of the Rutgers, New Jersey State University (Newark, USA).• Mr. Paul D'Auchamp, Deputy Regional Representative for Europe of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
• Rabbi Alexander Boroda, Member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, Director of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center (Moscow, Russia).
09.45 - 12.00. Conference hall. First Plenary session "Xenophobia and Right-wing Radicalism in Europe".
Moderators:
Prof. Matthew Feldman, York University, Director of the Center for the Analysis of Right-wing Radicalism (London, UK); Dr. Valery Engel, Head of the Center for Monitoring and Comparative Analysis of Intercultural Communications of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, Senior Fellow of the Center for the Analysis of Right-wing Radicalism (London, Britain); Ms. Vera Tika, Panteion University, director of the Institute for Social Economics (Athens, Greece).
• Dr. Valery Engel, Head of the Center for Monitoring and Comparative Analysis of Intercultural Communications of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis (Russia), Senior Researcher, Center for the Analysis of Right-wing Radicalism (London, Britain). "Xenophobia and Radicalism in Europe: General Trends and Prospects".
• Dr. Vasiliki Georgiadou, Panteion University, Associate Professor(Athens, Greece), Dr. Anastasia Kafe (Athens, Greece) “Xenophobia as a violent practice: Evidence from Greece”
• Dr. Panayote Dimitras, Co-manager of Greek Helsinki Monitor's "Racist Crimes Watch" project. "Racist discourse in Greece's mainstream politics and media".
• Dr. William Allchorn, Leeds Trinity University, Visiting Lecturer in Politics (UK). "Xenophobia and ultra-nationalism in Britain and Ireland. Comparative analysis".
• Dr. Jean-Yves Camus, Director of the Observatory for Political Radicalism, Researcher at the Institute for International Strategic Studies (IRIS) (Paris, France). "Extreme-Right Politics in France".
• Mr. Ruslan Bortnik, The Ukrainian Institute of Analysis and Management of Policy (Kiev, Ukraine). "Xenophobia, Radicalism and Hatred in Ukraine".
• Dr. Bettina Steible, European Institute of Public Administration (Barcelona, Spain). "The Spanish Exceptionality. Society's attitude towards immigrants, foreign nationals and ethnic minorities".
• Dr. Iosif Diskin, Chairman of the Commission of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation on Harmonization of Interethnic and Interreligious Relations (Moscow, Russia). "Civil Society of Russia and Xenophobia".
• General discussion.
12.00 - 12.15. Coffee break.
12.15.-14.30. Conference hall. Second plenary session "Xenophobia and Right-wing Radicalism in Europe".
Moderators:
Dr. Vasiliki Georgiadou, Panteion University, Associate Professor(Athens, Greece); Prof. Stephen Eric Bronner, Rutgers, New Jersey State University (Newark, USA), Executive Committee of UNESCO, Chair for the Prevention of Genocide, Director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights.
• Prof. Matthew Feldman, York University, Director of the Center for the Analysis of Right-wing Radicalism (London, UK). "The Radical Right in Britain".
• Dr. Alex Carter, Teesside University, Researcher (London, Britain). "Reciprocal radicalization: the co-evolution of the far-right and Islamist extremists in the UK".
• Ms. Vera Tika, University of the Pantheon, PhD Candidate (Athens, Greece). "The Profile of Racism and Racist violence during the years of the Economic Crisis in Greece."
• Dr. Ildiko Barna, University of Eotvos Lorand (ELTE), Faculty of Social Sciences (Budapest, Hungary). "Xenophobia, Radicalism and Prejudices in Hungary".
• Prof. Ilya Tarasov, Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University (Kaliningrad, Russia). "Tendencies of counteracting the spread of hatred in Slovakia".
• Dr. Franziska Schmidtke, Centre for Research on Right-Wing Extremism, Civic Education and Social Integration, General Manager (Jena, Germany). “Germany on shaky ground. New forms of Far-Right movements and Radicalization”.
• Dr. Anna Castriota, University of Northampton (UK). "Xenophobia and Ultra-nationalism in Italy".
• Ms. Katarzyna du Vall, Jagiellonian University, PhD Candidate (Krakow, Poland). "Protection of reputation of the Republic of Poland and the Polish Nation under Civil Law and its impact on freedom of scientific Research".
• Dr. Vanja Ljujic, postdoctoral Researcher at VU University (Amsterdam, Netherlands). "Xenophobia and Radicalism in the Netherlands".
• Dr. Semyon Charny, Researcher of the Scientific, Information and Education Center "Memorial" (Moscow, Russia). "Anti-Semitism in the Post-Soviet Space: a modern Aspect".
• General discussion.
14.30 - 15.30. Dinner.
15.30.-18.00. Conference hall. Third Plenary Session "Global Challenges".
Moderators:
Dr. Jean-Yves Camus, Director of the Observatory for Political Radicalism, Researcher at the Institute for International Strategic Studies (IRIS) (Paris, France); Dr. Ildiko Barna, University of Eotvos Lorand (ELTE), Faculty of Social Sciences (Budapest, Hungary).
• Prof. Mikhail Chlenov, Secretary General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress retired (Moscow, Russia). "Different types of modern European Anti-Semitism".
• Mr. Maik Fielitz, Research Fellow, Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, University Hamburg (Germany). "The Jew as the eternal enemy: Anti-Semitism in the Greek Radical Right".
• Prof. Andrea Petö, Central European University (Budapest, Hungary). "Memorial Years towards Paradigm Change of Memory Politics of Illiberal States".
• Mr. Ruslan Pankratov, doctor-psychotherapist, Chairman of the Board of the NGO "Russian World of Latvia" (Riga, Latvia). "The Problem of distortion of names and surnames in passports of ethnic minorities. Psychoacoustic aspect and phono semantic analysis ".
• Dr. Igor Kotler, Rutgers, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, New Jersey State University (Newark, USA), Director of the Museum of Human Rights, Freedom and Tolerance (Millburn, New Jersey, USA). "Ethnic Slurs: Indicators of Prejudice".
• Dr. Viktor Shnirelman, Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Ch. Researcher (Moscow, Russia). "Heroic past: Xenophobia, Propaganda and Symbolic language".
• Dr. Anfisa Chuganskaya, Associate professor of Moscow Economic Institute; Member of Advisory council of Committee on Ethnic Matters of the State Duma of the Russian Federation (Moscow, Russia). “The Problem of Cross-cultural Competence of Public Servants in modern society”.
• Dr. Zaur Aliyev, Associate Professor of the UNESCO Department for Human Rights and Information Law, Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law, Baku University (Baku, Azerbaijan). "The main features of the Protection of Women's Rights against the background of Xenophobia and Radicalism in Europe."
• Dr. Leonid Praisman, University of Jerusalem (Jerusalem, Israel). "The adoption of the Israeli Fundamental Law "Israel - the State of the Jewish People".
• Mr. Eric Gozlan, Executive Director of the Union of Peoples of the World (Paris, France). "How Xenophobia and Racism can also come from Religious leaders in Europe".
• Ms. Yuliya Tereshchenko, Executive Manager Society "Shamir-Latvia" (Riga, Latvia). “Challenges and opportunities in the work of Holocaust Museum”.
• General discussion.
18.00.-18.30. Conference hall. Closing of the Forum. Recommendations of the Expert community.
Moderators:
Dr. Jean-Yves Camus, Director of the Observatory for Political Radicalism, Researcher at the Institute for International Strategic Studies (IRIS) (Paris, France); Dr. Ildiko Barna, University of Eotvos Lorand (ELTE), Faculty of Social Sciences (Budapest, Hungary). Dr. Valery Engel, Head of the Center for Monitoring and Comparative Analysis of Intercultural Communications of the Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis (Russia); Senior Fellow, Center for the Analysis of Right-wing Radicalism (London, UK).
• General discussion.
18.30-20.30. Reception.
October 23
Hotel «Novotel, Athens», 4-6 Michail Voda str. 104 39 Athens Greece. Departure of Participants.
