6 OVERVIEW
a rise in racist and intolerant public
and political discourse and a reported
rise in hate-related incidents in some
countries over the year, these threats
are real. Much of ODIHR’s work aims
directly to address these threats.
On 28 September, the Office officially launched the three-year Words
into Action to Address Anti-Semitism
project, in an event at Warsaw’s Polin
Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
The project, fully funded by Germany,
aims to strengthen the capacity of
OSCE participating States and civil
society to prevent and respond to
anti-Semitism, with a focus on three
interconnected areas: addressing
the security needs of Jewish communities, countering anti-Semitism
through education, and fostering coalition building among communities.
Activities in the project’s first year
included partnering with six civil society groups in implementing projects
with innovative approaches to addressing anti-Semitism, consultative meetings with law enforcement authorities and Jewish community security
experts, a workshop in Budapest for
youth activists and a Brussels meeting
on the role of civil society coalitions in
addressing anti-Semitism.
Although there was some decline in
numbers in 2016, OSCE participating States in Europe continued to be
the destination for a large inflow of
refugees, many of them fleeing war,
violence and persecution in their countries of origin. Protection of the rights
of migrants and assisting in their integration continued to be a challenge. In
response, ODIHR brought together 50
experts from governmental or international organizations, civil society or
academic organizations to exchange
experiences on OSCE commitments
and the integration of migrants at a
March event in Riga, to produce recommendations for the development of
training resources and support for civil
society to work in this area. The Office
also provided a series of training workshops, involving nearly 300 participants, to build the capacities of national migration authorities and relevant
civil society actors and provide technical support in addressing the crisis.
As part of the OSCE’s broader
response to the crisis in and around
Ukraine, ODIHR continued to work
actively in the country. This included activities within the framework of
the ongoing project on Strengthening
Dialogue among Civil Society and
with Key Stakeholders in Ukraine
on Human Dimension Issues; the
ODIHR Director Michael Georg Link speaking at the opening of the 20th Human Dimension Implementation Meeting, as (from left) Katarzyna
Jarosiewicz-Wargan, ODIHR First Deputy Director; Christine Muttonen, President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly; Frank Walter Steinmeier,
OSCE Chairperson-in-Office and German Foreign Minister; Witold Waszczykowski, Foreign Minister of Poland; and Nils Muižnieks, Council of
Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, listen in Warsaw, 19 September 2016. (OSCE/Piotr Markowski)