A participant at the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, Warsaw, 28 September - 9 October. (OSCE/Piotr Markowski) 39 O SCE participating States have undertaken numerous commitments to combat racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism and other forms of intolerance, including against Muslims, Christians and followers of other religions. Despite this, violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms continue to threaten stability and security throughout the OSCE region. Accordingly, ODIHR works with participating States and a broad network of non-governmental bodies to defend freedom of thought, conscience, religion and belief and to eliminate manifestations of intolerance in order to build cohesive communities in which diversity and pluralism are seen as assets to democratic and pluralistic societies. Main Issues Hate-Motivated Crimes and Violent Manifestations of Intolerance According to ODIHR’s annual report on hate crime, there were numerous instances of hate-related intimidation, threats, vandalism, assault, arson and murder throughout the OSCE region in 2008. The report also stresses that the full extent of hate crimes remains obscured by a lack of reliable data. ODIHR Annual Report 2009 Tolerance and Non-discrimination