The London Declaration on Combating Antisemitism
Preamble
We, Representatives of our respective Parliaments from across the world, convening in London for
the founding Conference and Summit of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating
Antisemitism, draw the democratic world’s attention to the resurgence of antisemitism as a potent
force in politics, international affairs and society.
We note the dramatic increase in recorded antisemitic hate crimes and attacks targeting Jewish
persons and property, and Jewish religious, educational and communal institutions.
We are alarmed at the resurrection of the old language of prejudice and its modern manifestations –
in rhetoric and political action - against Jews, Jewish belief and practice and the State of Israel.
We are alarmed by Government-backed antisemitism in general, and state-backed genocidal
antisemitism, in particular.
We, as Parliamentarians, affirm our commitment to a comprehensive programme of action to meet
this challenge.
We call upon national governments, parliaments, international institutions, political and civic leaders,
NGOs, and civil society to affirm democratic and human values, build societies based on respect
and citizenship and combat any manifestations of antisemitism and discrimination.
We today in London resolve that;
Challenging Antisemitism
1. Parliamentarians shall expose, challenge, and isolate political actors who engage in hate
against Jews and target the State of Israel as a Jewish collectivity;
2. Parliamentarians should speak out against antisemitism and discrimination directed against
any minority, and guard against equivocation, hesitation and justification in the face of
expressions of hatred;
3. Governments must challenge any foreign leader, politician or public figure who denies,
denigrates or trivialises the Holocaust and must encourage civil society to be vigilant to this
phenomenon and to openly condemn it;
4. Parliamentarians should campaign for their Government to uphold international
commitments on combating antisemitism - including the OSCE Berlin Declaration and its
eight main principles;
5. The UN should reaffirm its call for every member state to commit itself to the principles
laid out in the Holocaust Remembrance initiative including specific and targeted policies to
eradicate Holocaust denial and trivialisation;
6. Governments and the UN should resolve that never again will the institutions of the
international community and the dialogue of nation states be abused to try to establish any
legitimacy for antisemitism, including the singling out of Israel for discriminatory treatment
in the international arena, and we will never witness – or be party to - another gathering like
Durban in 2001;
7. The OSCE should encourage its member states to fulfil their commitments under the 2004
Berlin Declaration and to fully utilise programmes to combat antisemitism including the Law
Enforcement programme LEOP;
8. The European Union, inter-state institutions and multilateral fora and religious
communities must make a concerted effort to combat antisemitism and lead their member
states to adopt proven and best practice methods of countering antisemitism;
9. Leaders of all religious faiths should be called upon to use all the means possible to
combat antisemitism and all types of discriminatory hostilities among believers and society at
large;
10. The EU Council of Ministers should convene a session on combating antisemitism relying
on the outcomes of the London Conference on Combating Antisemitism and using the
London Declaration as a basis.
Prohibitions
11. Governments should take appropriate and necessary action to prevent the broadcast of
explicitly antisemitic programmes on satellite television channels, and to apply pressure on
the host broadcast nation to take action to prevent the transmission of explicitly antisemitic
programmes;
12. Governments should fully reaffirm and actively uphold the Genocide Convention,
recognising that where there is incitement to genocide signatories automatically have an
obligation to act. This may include sanctions against countries involved in or threatening to
commit genocide or referral of the matter to the UN Security Council or initiate an interstate
complaint at the International Court of Justice;
13. Parliamentarians should legislate effective Hate Crime legislation recognising “hate
aggravated crimes” and, where consistent with local legal standards, “incitement to hatred”
offences and empower law enforcement agencies to convict;
14. Governments that are signatories to the Hate Speech Protocol of the Council of Europe
‘Convention on Cybercrime’ (and the ‘Additional Protocol to the Convention on cybercrime,
concerning the criminalisation of acts of a racist and xenophobic nature committed through
computer systems’) should enact domestic enabling legislation;
Identifying the threat
15. Parliamentarians should return to their legislature, Parliament or Assembly and establish
inquiry scrutiny panels that are tasked with determining the existing nature and state of
antisemitism in their countries and developing recommendations for government and civil
society action;
16. Parliamentarians should engage with their governments in order to measure the
effectiveness of existing policies and mechanisms in place and to recommend proven and
best practice methods of countering antisemitism;
17. Governments should ensure they have publicly accessible incident reporting systems, and
that statistics collected on antisemitism should be the subject of regular review and action by
government and state prosecutors and that an adequate legislative framework is in place to
tackle hate crime.
18. Governments must expand the use of the EUMC ‘working definition’ of antisemitism to
inform policy of national and international organisations and as a basis for training material
for use by Criminal Justice Agencies;
19. Police services should record allegations of hate crimes and incidents - including
antisemitism - as routine part of reporting crimes;
20. The OSCE should work with member states to seek consistent data collection systems for
antisemitism and hate crime.
Education, awareness and training
21. Governments should train Police, prosecutors and judges comprehensively. The training is
essential if perpetrators of antisemitic hate crime are to be successfully apprehended,
prosecuted, convicted and sentenced. The OSCE’s Law enforcement Programme LEOP is a
model initiative consisting of an international cadre of expert police officers training police
in several countries;
22. Governments should develop teaching materials on the subjects of the Holocaust, racism,
antisemitism and discrimination which are incorporated into the national school curriculum.
All teaching materials ought to be based on values of comprehensiveness, inclusiveness,
acceptance and respect and should be designed to assist students to recognise and counter
antisemitism and all forms of hate speech;
23. The OSCE should encourage their member states to fulfill their commitments under the
2004 Berlin Declaration and to fully utilise programmes to combat antisemitism including
the Law Enforcement programme LEOP;
24. Governments should include a comprehensive training programme across the Criminal
Justice System using programmes such as the LEOP programme;
25. Education Authorities should ensure that freedom of speech is upheld within the law and
to protect students and staff from illegal antisemitic discourse and a hostile environment in
whatever form it takes including calls for boycotts;
Community Support
26. The Criminal Justice System should publicly notify local communities when antisemitic
hate crimes are prosecuted by the courts to build community confidence in reporting and
pursuing convictions through the Criminal Justice system;
27. Parliamentarians should engage with civil society institutions and leading NGOs to create
partnerships that bring about change locally, domestically and globally, and support efforts
that encourage Holocaust education, inter-religious dialogue and cultural exchange;
Media and the Internet
28. Governments should acknowledge the challenge and opportunity of the growing new forms
of communication;
29. Media Regulatory Bodies should utilise the EUMC ‘Working Definition of antisemitism’
to inform media standards;
30. Governments should take appropriate and necessary action to prevent the broadcast of
antisemitic programmes on satellite television channels, and to apply pressure on the host
broadcast nation to take action to prevent the transmission of antisemitic programmes;
31. The OSCE should seek ways to coordinate the response of member states to combat the
use of the internet to promote incitement to hatred;
32. Law enforcement authorities should use domestic “hate crime”, “incitement to hatred”
and other legislation as well as other means to mitigate and, where permissible, to prosecute
“Hate on the Internet” where racist and antisemitic content is hosted, published and written;
33. An international task force of Internet specialists comprised of parliamentarians and
experts should be established to create common metrics to measure antisemitism and other
manifestations of hate online and to develop policy recommendations and practical
instruments for Governments and international frameworks to tackle these problems.
Inter-parliamentary Coalition for Combating Antisemitism
34. Participants will endeavour to maintain contact with fellow delegates through working
group framework; communicating successes or requesting further support where required;
35. Delegates should reconvene for the next ICCA Conference in Canada in 2010, become an
active member of the Inter-parliamentary Coalition and promote and prioritise the London
Declaration on Combating Antisemitism.
Lancaster House, 17 February 2009
