Vienna, May 8, 2008 ... The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) served as one of two U.S. representatives to a drafting committee working on guidelines designed to establish a common framework for improving responses to hate crimes within the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
Michael Lieberman, ADL Washington Counsel, served on the drafting team along with representatives from four other countries who traveled to Vienna, Austria for meetings May 6-8 with judges, prosecutors, human rights officials, representatives of international non-govermental organizations and officials from foreign ministries and justice ministries in a dozen OSCE nations.
The team discussed draft guidelines for the adoption and promotion by the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of a common framework, definitions and language to improve and systematize legal, legislative and programmatic responses to hate crimes.
Mr. Lieberman was earlier involved in the December 2007 OSCE Experts Roundtable on Hate Crime Legislation, also in Vienna. At that time, representatives from a dozen nations helped frame the legal and social environment for crafting guidelines promoting hate crime legislation within the 56 member-nations of the OSCE.
Most OSCE nations do not currently have hate crime laws similar to the the model legislation ADL drafted in the early 1980s that has become law in 45 states and the District of Columbia.
The group confronted the challenges of crafting a useful document promoting the adoption of hate crime legislation in light of the differing national histories and state experiences with democracy, inter-ethnic conflict, and racial diversity.
Among the other topics discussed by the group were:
• What is a hate crime?
• What sets have violence apart from other criminal activity?
• What crimes should be included in hate crime legislation?
• Should hate crime legislation be a separate substantive offense, or a penalty enhancement of existing criminal provisions?
• What protected characteristics should be included in states' laws?
The drafting committee will continue to work on the guidelines, with an eye toward completing the document before the end of summer 2008.
Over the past five years, ADL has taken a leadership role in presenting resources and recommendations to the OSCE on such topics as best practices to confront anti-Semitism, anti-bias education, hate crime data collection, combating youth violence, hate on the Internet, and Holocaust education.
