According to the annual report of the Anti-Racism commission within the Council of Europe, the trends of 2014 are oriented towards a "dramatic increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia online and in hate speeches and xenophobic political discourses.”
These trends are, according to the report closely related "to the conflicts in the Middle East, acts of Islamist violence in Europe and the incidents related to the unprecedented influx of migrants.”
"The events of worsening Semitism, Islamophobia and racism are sounding the alarm," said Thorbjørn Jagland, Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
"Across Europe, openness and tolerance gave way to antagonism and recriminations at a time when profound economic uncertainties weigh on the continent," he added.
The Secretary General endorsed the call of the ECRI to member states of the Council of Europe so that they use the tools of the Organization to combat all forms of racism and intolerance.
He invited Member States to ratify the Additional Protocol to the Convention on cybercrime, concerning the criminalization of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through computer systems and Protocol No. 12 to the European Convention on Human Rights, which prohibits discrimination in general.