MOSCOW, September 22. /ITAR-TASS/. Waning immunity to radical ideologies in many OSCE countries is a common challenge the world is facing, Andrei Kelin, Russian Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said on Monday.
“The strengthening of dangerous tendencies, such as rewriting history and glorifying the Nazis and their accomplices, are very alarming,” Kelin said at the Warsaw Human Dimension Session of the 2014 OSCE Review Conference.
“Such political short-sightedness may have tragic consequences and not only divide society but also, as the history of one of the OSCE country proves, provoke civil wars. We expect the ODIHR (OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights) and the High Commissioner on Ethnic Minorities will assume a more active position on these sensitive issues,” he said.
Another common challenge is the “waning immunity in many OSCE countries to radical ideologies and views, often under the motto of respect for the freedom of expression”.
“Racist and neo-Nazi organizations feel at ease as many human rights organizations are ringing the alarm over the growing number of incidents involving religious intolerance, racism, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, forcible extremism, aggressive nationalism and neo-Nazism. The OSCE and its rights institutions may not remain silent in this situation,” Kelin said.
He said special attention should be paid to the protection of the rights of ethnic minorities, including the phenomenon of “non-citizenship” in some of the EU countries.
“Discrimination against ethnic minorities and the rise of aggressive nationalism supported officially run counter to the numerous OSCE obligations and divide society into first- and second-class members,” the diplomat said.