Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting PC.SHDM.NGO/34/17 22-23 June 2017 28 June 2017
ENGLISH only
WORKING SESSION I
Dear moderator, Dear chairman, excellences, ladies and gentlemen
My name is Nasfie Jonuzi and I am here for “Netzwerk Muslimische Zivilgesellschaft”. But in fact, today I do not want to speak for my NGO.
Today I want to speak for my pupils at school who ask me why they are being verbally or physically abused while they are out on the streets with their mothers. I want to speak for those very pupils who ask me why we were threatened on our way to sports hall that day. Threatened and insulted with the slogan: “Turkish invasion! Get out of here!” I want to speak for Seyma, a very brave and strong woman, who decided to NOT stay silent about what happened to her. Who chose to point out what is happening to women like us day by day. A woman who did not want to give in either, when those public officers, refused to give her the kind of support they ought to. I want to speak for my friend Serife who is hindered to work as a public prosecutor or judge only because of her headgear and not because of her qualifications. As if her headgear would influence her capability to make decisions in that field. Today I want to speak for all those women who have to leave this country by the 1st of July next week. Women who were free citizens of this country are dehumanized and stripped off their basic rights just because some people do not like with their garment! As we already heard in the opening session, religion is multifaceted, so people might feel uncomfortable because it seems unusual for them.
But on the other side we have to recognize these women lose their fundamental rights when they are forced to leave their home. They have to migrate somewhere else, unfortunately, initiated to do so by the one and the same person who has the chairmanship of this organization which gathered all of us here today. As it was mentioned in the council of Europe in Strasbourg last Monday, where the role of the media in confronting terrorism was discussed. Unbalanced generalization leads to demonization of the ordinary people of the Muslim faith. And that for sure, does not enhance social cohesion! And furthermore, you cannot slam one freedom over the over. Both go hand in hand as Dr. Susan Kerr mentioned earlier today.
Our recommendations for the OSCE are:
• We need a better cooperation between the OSCE, Austrian officials and the key players within the community who are already collecting data on hate crimes and work on awareness building regarding the rise of Islamophobia. • We also need a better cooperation in regard to raising awareness among Austrian public officers about the problematic media coverage and its consequences in society. • We also need trainings for police officers on hate crimes and how to treat them properly. • We recommend every OSCE country to conduct a self-evaluation report in order to see if the OSCE countries observe the commitments they agreed upon. These analyses should be in close cooperation with civil organisations and NGO’s, similar to the self- evaluation report that countries which held the chairmanship conducted.