STRASBOURG. – With Middle East conflicts, violent Islamist movements and a massive influx of migrants to Europe, the annual report of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance (ECRI), published on July 9, reviews a dramatic increase in antisemitism, Islamophobia, online hate speech and xenophobic political discourse as main trends in 2014.

Insults and physical attacks on Jewish persons and institutions increased significantly, with their number more than doubled in some countries, according to the report. Growing anti-Semitic trends have been observed in Muslim immigrant communities, mainly among young people. Tensions rose after renewed violence in the Middle East in 2014 and have led to sweeping discrimination against Jews in general.

With regards to homo- and transphobia, the report describes a varied picture with progress in some countries and problems in others where LGBT people still experience unacceptably high levels of stigma, intolerance and discrimination.

In certain countries, the report attests to a growing trend of denying World War II era Nazi collaborationist regimes and their complicity in the Holocaust, paired with revived sympathies for the extreme right. 

Islamophobia is reported in many countries, counteracting integration efforts for inclusive European societies. According to the report the rise of extremism and violent Islamist movements were manipulated by populist politicians to portray Muslims in general as unable or unwilling to integrate and therefore as a security threat.

Furthermore, anti-migration public discourse was increasingly exploited in populist politics, as ongoing civil war in Syria – and conflicts, insecurity and poverty in other parts of Asia and Africa – led to a significant increase in the flow of asylum seekers and migrants entering Europe who received insufficient assistance and faced hostile public opinion in most European countries. 

In its report, ECRI deplores a rapid increase of hate speech disseminated through social media, and encourages member States to sign and ratify the Council of Europe’s Additional Protocol to the Convention on Cybercrime criminalising all racist and xenophobic acts committed online.

Only 18 out of the 47 states of the Council of Europe – out of them only eight EU members – have ratified Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights prohibiting discrimination in general. ECRI calls on all remaining states to ratify this instrument as soon as possible.