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The OSCE High Level Conference on Tolerance and Non-Discrimination was held in Kazakhstan on June 29-30, 2010. The leaders of state authorities, global institutions and non-governmental organizations participated in the conference. The members of the Youth Human Rights Movement (YHRM) took part in the conference as the representatives of the civil society.

The conference was the follow-up action within the bounds of the Kazakhstan OSCE Chairmanship in 2010. It was preceded by the preparatory summit for representatives of the civil society of the OSCE countries. During the summit the representatives of the non-governmental human rights organizations made out the recommendations addressed to governments concerning the hate speech and hate propaganda counteraction; legislative rules on the racism combating; and anti-racism education. The YHRM representatives also suggested a number of recommendations (developed in co-operation with Moscow Helsinki Group), such as: to pay attention to the volunteers’ and human rights activists’ protection, and to prevent the misuse of anti-extremism legislation in the OSCE countries.

The most heated disputes during the conference have been caused by such themes as: islamophobia, modern anti-Semitism, religious intolerance, LGBT rights discrimination. During the session dedicated to the education in the field of anti-racism, Irina Aksenova, the member of the YHRM Coordinating Council, declared appropriate recommendations, prepared by YHRM within the bounds of the last year research “Xenophobia in Youth Environment. Regional Aspect.”

“It is strange, that during the conference there were not discussed the recent events in Kirgizia, meanwhile, a number of experts consider the situation as a failure of the very idea of such an intergovernmental platform as OSCE,” commented the participants of the summit.

During the conference the YHRM representatives managed to reach an agreement with the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR, Warsaw, Poland) on the organization of a number of common educational events in Russia in 2010-2011, and the coaches training on the far right violence combating as well.

All the materials on the preparatory summit and the OSCE Conference will be available on the ODIHR website: www.tandis.odihr.pl