Tolerance and Non-discrimination V iolations of human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, and manifestations of hate and intolerance threaten stability and security in the OSCE region. While OSCE participating States have undertaken numerous commitments to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, and related intolerance, including against Muslims, much work remains to be done to foster democratic and pluralistic societies, where ethnic, cultural, and religious diversity is not only tolerated, but is truly respected and valued. Tolerance and non-discrimination have ranked high among the priorities of the past several OSCE chairmanships. Under Belgium’s leadership in 2006, the Chairman-in-Office reappointed the three personal representatives dedicated to particular aspects of tolerance and non-discrimination for another year. The OSCE also organized three tolerance implementation meetings on the topics of inter-cultural, interreligious, and inter-ethnic dialogue; education to promote mutual respect and understanding and remembrance of the Holocaust; and hate crime data collection. The year culminated with the adoption of a Ministerial Council Decision on “Combating Intolerance and Discrimination and Promoting Mutual Respect and Understanding”. Under this Decision, the ODIHR was tasked with strengthening its early-warning function to identify, report on, and raise awareness of hatemotivated incidents and trends and to provide recommendations and assistance to participating States, upon their request, in areas where more adequate responses are needed. One specific tool developed by the Office in this regard is the public tolerance and non-discrimination information system (http://tandis.odihr.pl). Main Issues k Hate-motivated crimes and violent manifestations of intolerance: Hate crimes involve violent expressions of bias; they may take the form of assault, murder, threats, or property damage, such as arson, desecration, or vandalism. Responding to hate crimes is problematic for a number of reasons. To begin with, most states lack accurate data about the nature and extent of hate crimes, which means that law enforcement and criminal-justice agencies are not armed with the information needed to combat such crimes. This is often compounded by an absence of legislation specifically on hate crimes, making it difficult to prosecute such cases. k Freedom of religion or belief: Across the OSCE region, many individuals and groups face restrictions on their right to freedom of religion or belief. Problems include discrimination against individuals in the workplace and public services, defamation campaigns against minority religions or belief groups, the disruption or prohibition of worship even in private homes, censorship of religious literature, and imprisonment of those who object to military service on religious grounds. These restrictions may be a direct result of state legislation and policies, or, in other cases, they may arise as a result of a lack of protective action from state authorities, often in the face of a dominant religious majority. Throughout the Commonwealth of Independent States and elsewhere, registration rules and procedures continue to be systematically abused to infringe the rights of entire faith communities. k Education: Since hate-motivated crime is often the result of negative stereotypes, often passed from generation to generation, educational efforts aimed at promoting mutual respect and understanding; an appreciation of cultural, reli- Annual Report  65