The Equality and Non-discrimination Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe has called on member States to adopt strategies or national action plans to prevent and combat antisemitism, and to allocate sufficient financing to put them into effect.
States should “criminalise the negation, the banalisation, or denial of the Holocaust”, if this is not already the case, and ensure that the desecration of Jewish property and monuments is outlawed.
Adopting a draft resolution based on a report by Petra Bayr (Austria, SOC), the parliamentarians said laws banning hate speech should be applied fully, and combating antisemitic hate speech online should be given priority, along with the teaching of the Holocaust in secondary schools.
Political parties, for their part, should take strong measures against all forms of antisemitism or hate speech within their ranks, whilst national parliaments should “publicly and resolutely condemn” expressions of antisemitism and other forms of hatred by parliamentarians.
