JUST/2022/OP/0002 (internal ref. JUST/2021/PR/PFRI/RIGH/0004)

9 June 2022 - Under the European Education Area Strategic Framework, the European Commission organised its fifth meeting of the Working Group on Equality and Values. Pascale Falek, Policy Officer in the office of the Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, presented the EU Antisemitism Strategy during the panel discussion on 'EU non-discrimination policy instruments'.

7 June 2022 - Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, payed a visit to Bremen to present the EU Antisemitism Strategy to deputies of the Parliament and the public.

06 June 2022 - Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas, met with American Jewish Committee CEO, David Harris, during his visit to New York. They reinforced their commitment to work together in order to win the war against antisemitism in Europe and internationally.

1-2 June 2022 - The second meeting of the Working Group on the implementation of the EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, that took place in Brussels, opened with a video message from Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, Margaritis Schinas. The Working Group was chaired by Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.

19 May 2022 - In order to raise awareness and facilitate communication between law enforcement agencies and the Jewish communities in Berlin to improve the response to antisemitic hate crimes and address the communities’ security needs, OSCE-ODIHR organised a conference in Berlin, attended by Wester Meijdam, Policy Officer in the office of the European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.

31 May 2022 - As part of the World Jewish Congress Ronald S. Lauder Fellowship Diplomacy Summit, Pascale Falek, Policy Officer, presented the EU Antisemitism Strategy and held exchange of views on various topics of interest for young Jews across the world, including fighting antisemitism online, ensuring Holocaust education, EU-Israel relation and preventing and fighting all forms of antisemitic manifestations globally. The 40 young activists were from the United States, Europe, South Africa, Canada and South America.

30 May 2022 - For her outstanding example of civic involvement for a tolerant Europe and continuous solidarity with the Jewish community, the Conference of European Rabbis bestowed their prestigious Rabbi Moshe Rosen Prize upon Katharina von Schnurbein, European Commission Coordinator on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.

18 - 19 May 2022 - Given the rise of antisemitic incidents, Austria invited to the 'European Conference on Antisemitism' Member States to unite their forces to not only denounce the scourge of antisemitism, but also to aim at developing a standardized methodology for recording of antisemitic incidents. This is one of the actions featured in the EU Strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life.

11 May 2022 - As Chairperson of the jury, Ms. von Schnurbein presented the main prize of the newly established Austrian Simon Wiesenthal Prize (15.000 Euro) to four contemporary witnesses: Lily Ebert, Zwi Nigal, Karl Pfeifer and Liliana Segre, to honour their life's work. All of them have engaged with young people in sharing their testimony, and contributed in an extraordinary way to education and remembrance of the Shoah.

On 27 June 2022 an international symposium addressing conspiracy theories through education is taking place in Brussels. The event is organised by UNESCO in cooperation with the European Commission, the European Jewish Congress, Alfred Landecker Foundation and the University of Cambridge. The event can be followed live on the Facebook and Youtube page of UNESCO.

A guide on 'Online Antisemitism: A Toolkit for Civil Society' was published by B’nai B’rith International and Institute for Strategic Dialogue in partnership with UNESCO, with the aim to build capacity among civil society to tackle the threat of online antisemitism. The guide provides an overview of the online antisemitism threat landscape, a summary of existing policy responses on international and national levels across a range of European contexts, and a broad set of recommendations for civil society engagement with governments, platforms and wider communities to address this challenge

The National Fund of the Republic of Austria for Victims of National Socialism invites individuals and groups from civil society to submit an entry for the Simon Wiesenthal Prize 2022. Candidates’ work and activities must focus on and be characterised by outstanding civic engagement to combat antisemitism and/or promote Holocaust education.

27 April 2022 - On the occasion of Yom HaShoah, European Commissioner for Equality Helena Dalli took part in the commemoration event organised by the Combat Antisemitism Movement (CAM) and Zikaron BaSalon.

3 May 2022 - As part of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, the Canadian Taskforce to Combat Online Antisemitism held a Human Rights Talks with Katharina von Schnurbein. In the podcast, the Coordinator discussed about current trends in online and offline antisemitism, Holocaust denial and distortion, and looked into how best to tackle this at European and global level.

23 April 2022 - The Commission welcomes the swift political agreement reached between the European Parliament and EU Member States on the proposal on the Digital Services Act (DSA), proposed by the Commission in December 2020.

The European Parliament adopted, on 7 April 2022, with an overwhelming majority a Resolution on the EU Protection of children and young people fleeing the war in Ukraine. The Resolution - initiated by the Intergroup on Children’s Rights - features important provisions to address the specific plight of children and young people fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. It stresses to need for the creation of a robust registration system at the border, to track and monitor children, with a particular attention of unaccompanied children to ensure they do not go missing or worse, end up in the hands of traffickers. It also includes strong measures to for the integration of these children in the hosting countries granting them immediate access to education and health on equal footing with their EU national peers, so as to ensure all these children are given a real change to excel and reach their full potential. This Resolution comes after the European Commission Communication on the Ukraine: EU support to help Member States meet the needs of refugees , as well as the 10-action point of 23 March aimed at supporting all people fleeing from Ukraine, and provide specific measure to support neighboring countries.

On 8 March 2022, the European Commission released its proposal on EU-wide rules to combat violence against women and domestic violence. The proposed Directive will criminalise rape based on lack of consent, female genital mutilation and cyber violence, which includes: non-consensual sharing of intimate images; cyber stalking; cyber harassment; and cyber incitement to violence or hatred. The new rules also strengthen victims' access to justice and encourage Member States to implement a one-stop shop mechanism, meaning that all support and protection services would be located in the same place. The victims should be able to claim compensation in the course of criminal proceedings. The proposal also calls for adequate and specialised protection and support, for instance, through free of charge helplines and rape crisis centres. It also provides for targeted support for groups with specific needs or at risk, including women fleeing armed conflict. Amongst others, this proposal aims at providing for specific safeguards for child victims of violence against women or domestic violence, guaranteeing, for example, that children can easily report offences and are provided with safe places for with parent offenders, who have rights of access.

From 31 March until 30 June 2022, the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child is inviting young people from around the world to complete a questionnaire that will help shape the content of the General Comment No. 26 ( General Comment on Children’s Rights and the Environment with a Special Focus on Climate Change). This is the official UN guidance on what governments must do to uphold children’s rights and protect our planet. This consultation will help fill gaps in their current understanding of certain key issues and clarify difficult concepts (e.g. rights of future generations) and most importantly, integrate the voices of children and young people and the most impacted by the issue.

28 March 2022 - Katharina von Schnurbein met with Marek Siwiec, CEO of Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC), and Ruslan Kavatsiuk, Deputy CEO, to discuss the impact of the Russian military agression on Ukraine on Ukrainian Jews, Ukrainian Jewish heritage and the work of BYHMC.