OSCE/ODIHR Director Link condemns terrorist attacks in Copenhagen, calls for greater efforts by governments to meet security needs of Jewish communities and protect freedom of speech

WARSAW, 16 February 2015 – Michael Georg Link, Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), today condemned attacks that killed a security guard at a synagogue and a participant in a freedom of speech event in Copenhagen on Saturday.

“I am shocked by the terrorist attacks in Copenhagen on the weekend,” Link said. “While such attacks affect us all, they have a particularly strong impact on the daily lives of Jewish people; now is the time to stand together against these crimes based on hatred, including those based on anti-Semitism.”

Link welcomed the swift action by Danish authorities to address these crimes, while calling on governments across the OSCE to take all appropriate efforts to meet the security needs of Jewish communities. 

“I call on governments to assess the security needs of Jewish communities and take all necessary steps to prevent such horrible crimes from happening,” the ODIHR Director said. “Such attacks are a strong reminder of the need to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms – including the freedom of speech – and for effective responses to all bias, discrimination and violence targeting different communities.”

Saturday’s shooting followed the killing, on 7 January 2015, of 12 people in an attack on the Charlie Hebdo Magazine, of a police officer on the next day, and then of four people during an attack on a kosher supermarket near Paris on 9 January 2015. The attacks earlier this year followed the attack on four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May 2014, and the killing of four people in March 2012 in an attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse, France.

The importance of developing adequate responses to violent attacks and other manifestations of anti-Semitism was emphasized at a high level event in November to mark the 10th Anniversary of the OSCE’s Berlin Conference on Anti-Semitism. Participants, including civil society representatives, who played a major part in the event, produced a set of recommendations for further action by participating States to provide security for Jewish communities.