Participants discuss educational guide for policymakers on responding to anti-Semitism at joint OSCE/ODIHR-UNESCO meeting in Paris

Some 50 experts, including representatives of governments and international organizations, met to discuss effective practices and educational approaches to addressing anti-Semitism at an event organized by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and UNESCO on 13 July 2017 at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

The main focus of the discussions was the development by ODIHR and UNESCO of a guide for educational policymakers. The guide will offer comprehensive approaches for responding in classrooms to the challenge of anti-Semitism. It will draw on approaches already developed by international and national stakeholders.  

“Education is one of the most powerful means for building a society free of anti-Semitism and other forms of discrimination,” said Jan Henrik Fahlbusch, ODIHR Adviser on Combating Anti-Semitism. “Today's discussion has shown the need to provide policy recommendations and good practices to governments on how to achieve this goal most effectively.”

The meeting of the representatives from OSCE participating States and UN Member States gave the participants the opportunity to provide feedback on the outline of the policy guide. It followed a meeting of an ODIHR education experts group on 10 and 11 July, also at UNESCO headquarters.

The participants explored current discussions of how anti-Semitism is understood and how it is manifested. Along with examining effective practices, key policies and sustainable methods for addressing anti-Semitism through education, they also highlighted the educational contexts in which it can be addressed, such as through human rights education and UNESCO's Global Citizen Education programme.

“Anti-Semitism is a human rights issue. It has a negative impact on the society as a whole, not only on the group affected,” said Karel Fracapane, Senior Project Officer at UNESCO Education Sector. “Preventing anti-Semitism through education should, therefore, be an effort to equip young people with the skills to reject anti-Semitic views, as well as all forms of prejudice, while understanding better the specifies of anti-Semitism over time, including today.”

This event was organized as part of the German-funded ODIHR project, “Turning Words into Action to Address Anti-Semitism”, which addresses the issue by focusing on three components: security, education and coalition building. The education policy guidelines are scheduled to be ready in 2018.